Skip to main content

Full text of "A tax-eating proposition : the history of the Passpasschase Indian Reserve"

See other formats 


@X  MBMS 


High  LiGvel 

BOOK  BINDERY  LTD. 

10372  -  60  Ave.,  Edmonton 

"THE  HIGHEST  LEVEL  OF 
CRAFTSMANSHIP" 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ALBERTA 


A  TAX-EATING  PROPOSITION: 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE 
PASSPASSCHASE  INDIAN  RESERVE 


Dy 

KENNETH  JAMES  TYLER 


A  THESIS 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  GRADUATE  STUDIES  AN 
IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 
OF  MASTER  OF  ARTS 


DEPARTMENT  OF  HISTORY 


EDMONTON ,  ALBERTA 
SPRING ,  1979 


D  RESEARCH 
THE  DEGREE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
University  of  Alberta  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/taxeatingproposiOOtyle 


DEDICATION 


To  the  members  of  The  Enoch  Band 


ABSTRACT 


The  surrender  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  in  November  of  1888 
was  the  first  significant  Indian  Reserve  surrender  in  the  Canadian 
North  West.  As  such,  it  was  the  precedent  for  the  devastating  series 
of  Indian  land  surrenders  which  followed  during  the  first  three 
decades  of  the  Twentieth  Century.  Like  many  precedents,  however,  the 
Passpasschase  surrender  was  not  the  result  of  any  considered  govern¬ 
ment  policy,  nor  was  it  intended  to  set  the  pattern  for  future  land 
cessions  by  Indian  bands.  Rather,  it  was  the  product  of  a  unique 
combination  of  circumstances  which  conspired  to  make  the  abandonment 
and  sale  of  the  reserve  lands  appear  to  be  the  most  expedient  res¬ 
ponse  to  immediate  pressures.  While  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs 
was  quickly  discouraged  by  the  practical  problems  which  it  encountered 
in  attempting  to  dispose  of  the  reserve  land,  and  became  rather  dis¬ 
enchanted  with  the  surrender  process  as  a  result,  others  took  a 
different  view.  Frank  Oliver,  the  editor  of  the  Edmonton  Bulletin, 
and  a  leader  among  the  white  residents  of  Edmonton  who  had  campaigned 
vigorously  against  the  establishment  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve 
since  before  it  was  definitely  located,  found  confirmation  for  his 
belief  that  trie  land  was  needed  by  better  men  in  the  final  outcome 
of  the  surrender.  By  the  end  of  the  century,  the  potential  of  a 
forty  square  mile  tract  which  had  been  virtually  unexploited  by  a 
band  of  Indians  which  had  "gone  into  the  business  of  starving  and 


(iv) 


dunning  the  Government  for  grub" ,  was  supporting  a  prosperous 
community  of  industrious  white  farmers.  The  Passpasschase  Reserve 
had  been  transformed  from  a  tax-eating  to  a  tax -paying  proposition, 
and  this  change  was  most  gratifying  to  the  future  Superintendent 
General  of  Indian  Affairs. 


(v) 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 


I  would  like  to  express  my  appreciation  to  Professors  David  J. 
Hall  and  John  E.  Foster  for  their  helpful  comments  and  suggestions  on 
the  various  drafts  through  which  this  thesis  progressed,  and  to 
C.  B.  Koester,  for  his  penetrating  criticisms  of  the  first  draft  of  the 
land  claim  upon  which  this  thesis  was  based.  A  special  acknowledgement 
must  also  be  made  of  the  invaluable  contribution  made  by  former  Chief 
Raymond  Cardinal,  and  Councillors  Ed  and  Romeo  Morin,  Charlie  Cowan, 
Alphonse  Thomas ,  and  Alex  Peacock  of  the  Enoch  Band  and  the  former  Band 
Administrator,  Cliff  Sim.  It  was  they  who  made  the  decision  to  finance 
the  original  research  which  was  used  in  this  thesis,  and  who  kindly 
extended  permission  for  me  to  make  use  of  the  findings  for  academic 
purposes .  I  can  only  hope  the  eventual  results  of  the  many  pleasant 
months  that  I  spent  working  for  them  will  in  some  measure  justify  the 
faith  which  they  displayed  in  me.  Thanks  are  also  due  to  the  many 
members  of  the  Enoch  Band  who  shared  their  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
the  Passpasschase  Band  with  me.  Much  that  I  learned  informally  from 
George  Morin,  Johnny  Ward,  Lawrence  Morin,  Jim  Lapotac,  and  others 
could  not  be  adequately  reflected  in  the  footnotes  and  bibliography. 
Also,  thanks  are  due  to  Shelagh  Morse,  who  exercised  great  patience  and 
care  in  typing  the  final  copy  of  this  thesis.  Finally,  a  special  note 
of  appreciation  is  due  to  my  wife,  Barbara,  who  not  only  performed  an 
inordinate  share  of  the  physical  labour  involved  in  typing,  proof¬ 
reading,  and  correcting  the  many  drafts  of  this  work,  but  also  pro¬ 
vided  the  emotional  support  and  encouragement  which  made  possible  its 
completion , 


i.) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTERS  PAGE 

I  THE  LAW  AND  ITS  ORIGINS  .  .  1 

II  THE  TREATY  AND  THE  BAND  .  . . .  .  .  .  25 

III  DISINTEGRATION . . .  78 

IV  THE  SURRENDER . .  .  108 

V  A  HARBINGER  . .  145 

*  *  * 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE . . .  160 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . .  173 


MAP 


DESCRIPTION 


Plan  of  the  Subdivision  into  Sections  of  the  Lands  Reserve 
for  the  Band  of  Chief  "Papaschase"  Heretofore  Known.  As 
Indian  Reserve  No.  136  At  the  Two  Hills  Near  Edmonton  .  .  . 


PAGE 


.  109 


(viii) 


The  tract  of  country  south  of  Strathcona  known 
as  the  Indian  reserve  is  covered  with  stubble  fields 
and  grain  stacks.  Seven  steam  threshers  are  finding 
ample  work  on  it  this  fall.  It  is  producing  many 
thousands  of  bushels  of  grain  and  thereby  adding  wealth 
to  the  country.  Had  it  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Indians  it  would  still  be  a  tax  eating  instead  of  a 
tax  paying  proposition. 

—Edmonton  Bulletin ,  October  28,  1901. 


(ix) 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  LAW  AND  ITS  ORIGINS 


If  this  country  was  given  by  the  Indians  to 
the  Government  then  it  would  be  right  for 
the  Government  to  be  thankful  for  whatever 
they  might  get;  but  if  the  Government  has 
bought  the  land  it  is  surely  their  right  and 
duty  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the 
settlers,  both  present  and  future,  for  whom 
the  land  was  bought,  and  out  of  whose  earnings 
it  is  expected  ultimately  to  be  paid  for.  .  . 

—The  Bulletin,  January  17,  1831 


1 


2 


When  the  adventurers  of  Early  Modern  Europe  first  arrived  in 
America,  they  found  various  indigenous  peoples  in  possession  of  the 
hemisphere.  Almost  immediately,  the  newcomers  began  to  displace  the 
native  tribes  and  occupy  their  lands.  In  some  places  and  times  the 
Europeans  met  with  determined  opposition;  in  other  places  and  at  other 
times,  they  did  not;  but,  in  whatever  fashion  the  Indians  and  Inuit 
may  have  expressed  their  objections,  the  superior  force  and  resources 
of  European  civilization  were  more  than  sufficient  to  overwhelm  them. 
All  of  the  Americas  fell  first  into  the  possession  of  European  Empires, 
and  ultimately  into  the  hands  of  independent  states  in  which  European 
influences  predominated. 

The  displacement  of  the  Indians  and  Inuit  was  inevitable.  But 
the  process  by  which  it  occurred  was  not  uniform,  and  everywhere  it 
encompassed  more  than  a  series  of  oft-repeated  events--of  conquests, 
threats,  and  negotiated  'treaties'.  It  also  posed  a  series  of  moral 
and  legal  questions,  the  answers  to  which  needed  to  be  integrated  into 
different  European  systems  of  thought  and  of  law.  The  powerful  nation¬ 
states  on  the  east  side  of  the  North  Atlantic  had  achieved  their 
strength  through  the  creation  of  ordered  societies.  Each  of  them 
endeavoured  to  transplant  its  particular  system  of  order  to  America. 

In  part,  this  can  account  for  the  differing  ways  in  which  the  invading 
nations  dealt  with  the  Indian  presence  in  the  New  World. 

An  essential  element  in  the  stability  of  all  European  powers 
was  a  means  of  securing  persons  in  their  possession  of  specific  tracts 
of  land,  and  of  providing  for  the  orderly  transfer  of  real  property. 
Each  of  them  had  developed  a  substantial  body  of  law  for  this  purpose. 


When  European  codes  of  land  tenure  were  imposed  upon  America,  the 
question  of  the  rights  of  the  indigenous  peoples  to  the  land  could  not 
forever  remain  unresolved.  Yet,  it  is  not  surprising  that  no  single, 
nor  very  clear,  answer  was  given.  Just  how  the  aboriginal  title  of 
the  Indians  and  Inuit  was  dealt  with  by  the  various  colonizing  powers 
is  still  the  subject  of  controversy.  It  has  been  asserted  by  some 
that  all  European  powers  (with  the  notable  exception  of  the  French) , 
recognized  the  validity  of  the  Indian  title  to  the  Americas  from  the 
commencement  of  their  settlement  in  the  New  World.1  Others  have 
declared  that  the  only  European  nations  to  recognize  aboriginal  rights 
m  a  consistent  fashion  were  the  Netherlands  and  Sweden. 

In  a  sense,  both  views  are  correct.  Examples  can  be  found  to 
demonstrate  that  some  Indians,  at  some  times,  and  in  some  places,  were, 
in  fact,  compensated  for,  or  left  undisturbed  in  possession  of,  their 
lands  by  all  of  the  colonizing  powers.  Even  the  notorious  Spandiards , 
were  constrained  by  the  teachings  of  Franciscus  de  Victoria, d and  by 


1See,  for  example,  Peter  A.  Gumming  and  Neil  H.  Mickenberg, 
eds . ,  Native  Rights  in  Canada  (2nd.;  Toronto:  The  Indian -Eskimo 
Association  of  Canada,  1972),  pp.  13-50. 

2W.  C.  MacLeod,  The  American  Indian  Frontier  (London:  Dawsons 
of  Pall  Mall,  1968) ,  pp.  193-208. 

3In  1532,  Victoria,  a  Dominican  and  Professor  of  Sacred  Theol¬ 
ogy  at  the  University  of  Salamanca,  gave  a  series  of  lectures  entitled 
De  Indls  and  De  Jure  Belli,  in  which  he  asserted  that  the  aborigines 
of  the  Americas  were  the  owners  of  the  lands  which  the  Spaniards  were 
then  exploiting,  and  that  the  Spaniards  had  no  right  to  dispossess  them 
of  their  lands,  or  to  make  war  upon  them  except  in  self-defence.  The 
Spaniards,  Victoria  argued,  should  employ  pacific  measures  to  convert 
the  Indians  to  Christianity,  and  to  persuade  them  to  submit  to  the 
authority  of  the  Spanish  monarch.  Should  the  Indians  refuse,  the 
Europeans  had  no  right  to  make  war  upon  them,  unless  the  aborigines 
forcibly  interfered  with  the  rights  of  the  newcomers  no  trade,  travel, 
or  preach  the  Gospel.  Franciscus  de  Victoria;  De  Indis  et  de  Jure 


the  dictates  of  the  Papal  Bull  Sublimis  Deus ,  to  recognize  the  exist¬ 


ence  of  limited  Indian  property  rights,  albeit  that  such  a  concession 
was  relatively  meaningless  in  practice.11  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
indisputable  that  the  sovereign  authorities  of  the  European  nations 
regularly  granted  vast  tracts  of  American  lands  to  certain  of  their 
subjects,  with  a  complete  indifference  to  any  rights  of  the  native 
inhabitants.  Only  the  Dutch  took  the  peculiar  step  of  insisting  that 
a  title  to  lands  be  obtained  from  the  Indians  as  well  as  the  Dutch 
authorities .* * * *  5 

The  British  record  on  this  question  is  most  complex  and  con¬ 
fusing.  English  monarchs  invariably  ignored  any  aboriginal  rights 
when  granting  charters  for  new  colonies  in  America,  but  a  great  many 
of  the  proprietors  and  governors  of  such  colonies  undertook  the  expense 
and  trouble  of  purchasing  their  newly  acquired  lands  from  the  Indians.6 


Belli  Relectiones,  Being  Parts  of  Relectiones  Theologicae  XII  (Ernest 
Nys,  ed.)  in  The  Classics  of  International  Law  Series  (Washington: 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  1917)  especially  pp.  151-162  and 
166-173. 


4 Cummings  and  Mickenberg,  Native  Rights,  pp.  14-15.  Some  of 
the  fine  sentiments  of  Victoria  and  of  Sublimis  Deus  were  incorporated 
into  the  New  Laws  of  the  Indies  (1542) ,  but  the  majority  of  Spanish 
adventurers  in  the  New  World  had  built  their  personal  fortunes  on  the 
encomienda  system  of  forced  Indian  labour,  and  were  prepared  to  revolt 

at  the  prospect  of  the  recognition  of  any  Indian  rights.  Three  years 

later  some  of  the  New  Laws  were  revoked,  and  the  means  were  quickly 

found  to  render  many  of  the  remaining  laws  meaningless  in  practice. 

MacLeod,  American  Indian  Frontier,  pp.  87-93. 

5MacLeod,  American  Indian  Frontier,  pp.  196-197. 

6The  grant  of  Rupert's  Land  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  con¬ 
forms  to  this  pattern.  The  Charter  granted  by  Charles  II  in  1670 
makes  the  Governor  and  Company  "absolute  Lordes  and  Proprietors"  of 
Rupert's  Land,  without  reference  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Territory , 
even  though  the  primary  purpose  of  the  Company  was  to  trade  with  the 
native  tribes.  Yet,  when  the  H.B.C.  began  to  build  posts  on  the  shores 


Yet,  until  very  recent  times,  it  has  not  been  suggested  that  the 
failure  of  a  proprietor  or  his  successor  to  extinguish  Indian  rights 
has  jeopardized  his  title.  And  only  Roger  Williams,  with  that  con¬ 
sistency  which  is  a  mark  both  of  the  genius  and  of  the  fanatic,  went 
so  far  as  to  claim  that  the  King  had  no  right  to  grant  lands  which  the 
Indians  had  not  surrendered.  He  followed  the  Dutch  example  and 
obtained  the  Charter  for  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island  from  the  English 
Parliament  only  after  the  land  had  been  purchased  from  the  Indians. 
Williams  appears  to  have  been  the  sole  founder  of  a  recognized  British 
colony  in  America  to  have  proceeded  in  this  manner.* * * * 7 8 

Nevertheless,  the  fashion  of  extinguishing  the  Indian  title  did 
spread.  There  were  a  few  non -conformists ,  but  by  the  end  of  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century  the  greater  part  of  the  settled  portions  of  the  English 
colonies  on  the  east  coast  of  America  had  been  purchased  from  the 
Indians.  Indeed,  the  new  custom  created  a  new  problem.  Ambitious 
settlers  who  purchased  their  intended  estates  from  the  Indians  had  to 
be  reminded  that  the  aboriginal  title  had  no  standing  in  law,  and 
that  only  the  colonial  authorities  could  make  a  valid  grant  of  land.0 


of  the  Bay,  treaties  were  initially  entered  into  with  the  Indians  to 
purchase  the  land  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  See  Arthur  S.  Merton, 

A  History  of  the  Canadian  West  to  1870-71  (2nd  ed. ;  Toronto:  Univer¬ 

sity  of  Toronto  Press,  1973),  pp.  51,  67,  and  73.  After  a  brief 

flurry  in  the  late  seventeenth  century,  the  practice  of  making  land 

cession  treaties  with  the  Indians  of  Rupert's  Land  seems  to  have 

fallen  into  disuse  until  1817. 

7 James  Trusiow  Adams,  The  Founding  of  New  England  (Boston: 
Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1927),  p.  164.  MacLeod,  American  Indian  Frontier, 
p.  199.  »■■■-— 

8 Ibid.,  pp.  200-203. 


6 


The  British,  then,  did  not  recognize  an  aboriginal  title  to 
the  lands  they  had  colonized  in  America .  Only  in  the  history  of  Rhode 
Island  can  one  find  any  indication  that  the  colonial  authorities 
recognized  Indian  ownership  of  the  land,  as  Europeans  understood  that 
concept.  But  the  increasingly  widespread  practice  of  purchasing  land 
from  the  original  inhabitants ,  which  may  often  have  been  prompted  by  a 
desire  to  blunt  Indian  hostility  to  the  expansion  of  settlement,  also 
evidenced  a  recognition  by  the  British  colonizers  of  a  moral  right  of 
the  indigenous  peoples  to  their  hunting  grounds.  This  vague  acknow¬ 
ledgement  of  the  Indian's  moral  position  almost  imperceptibly  began  to 
seep  into  the  laws  of  what  were  to  become  the  United  States  and 
Canada . 9 

While  the  moral  right  of  the  Indians  to  the  land  of  the  New 
World  was  gradually  being  conceded,  new  questions  were  arising.  The 
self-righteous  attitude  of  those  settlers  who  had  received  legal  title 
to  their  lands  from  the  authorities  and  then  repurchased  the  same 
tracts  from  the  Indians  "in  order  that  they  might  have  a  just  and 
equitable  as  well  as  legal  right  to  the  land,"10  soon  gave  way  to 
renewed  feelings  of  guilt.  The  agreements  whereby  Europeans  obtained 
land  from  the  Indians  were  usually  not  of  an  equitable  nature.  Co¬ 
ercion,  threats,  and  misrepresentation  were  often  resorted  to.  Areas 

°For  one  of  the  most  thought -provoking  treatments  of  this 
subject  see:  Daniel  J.  Boorstin,  The  Americans.:  The  National 
Experience  (New  York:  Vintage  Books,  1365} ,  pp-  256-264. 

10N.  Fiske,  An  Account  of  the  Settlement  of  Brookfield  iMass’. ] 
and  Its  Distresses  During  the  Indian  Wars?  quoted  in  MacLeod , 

American  Indian  Frontier,  p„  201. 


7 


were  sometimes  acquired  from  Indians  whose  connection  therewith  was 
very  tenuous,  but  who  were  far  more  agreeable  than  the  natives  actually 
resident . 

The  Proclamation  of  1763  vested  in  the  Indians  at  the  very 
least  usufructuary  rights  over  a  portion  of  the  British  Empire  in 
America.  It  also  attempted  to  assure  the  aborigines  that  unconscion¬ 
able  land  transactions  would  cease  by  establishing  a  Crown  monopoly 
for  extinguishing  Indian  rights.  But  the  moral  dilemma  could  not  be 
disposed  of  by  transforming  it  into  a  legal  one.  The  harsh  reality 
remained  that  if  the  European  colonists  and  authorities  desired  Indian 
lands  the  Indians  could  not  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way,  no  matter 
how  desirable  it  might  be  to  obtain  their  good  will.  No  series  of  trans¬ 
actions  based  upon  such  a  premise  could  be  entirely  just. 

This  being  the  case,  the  British  and  the  Americans  were 
compelled  to  seek  justification  for  their  appropriation  of  Indian 
lands  in  concepts  that  would  bear  closer  examination  than  would  the 
land  cession  T treaties1.  It  was  sometimes  asserted  that  the  Indians 
placed  little  or  no  value  on  their  territories  and  readily  parted  with 
them.  While  this  may  have  been  true  in  the  early  stages  of  European 
colonization,  a  few  experiences  at  the  hands  of  the  whites  soon  taught 
the  natives  the  value  of  their  lands .  It  was  also  claimed  that  the 
red  man  could  not  grasp  the  concept  of  land  ownership. ^  VJhile  there 
is  no  doubt  that  some  of  the  incidents  which  the  Indians  attached  to 
land  ownership  did  not  always  coincide  with  those  of  the  English  common 


^Hjilliam  Francis  Butler,  The  Great  Lone  Land  (Edmonton: 
Hurtig  Publishers,  1968),  p.  362. 


. 


8 


law,  it  became  increasingly  difficult  to  maintain  this  claim  against 
the  insistent  declarations  of  ownership  made  by  the  Indians  them¬ 
selves  . 12 

But  there  were  two  rationalizations  for  the  displacement  of  the 
Indian  which  appeared  self-evident  to  the  Europeans  until  almost  the 
present  day,  and  which  were  rarely,  if  ever,  challenged.  One  was  that 
the  Indians  did  not  use  the  land,  or  at  the  very  least,  did  not  make 
use  of  more  than  a  small  fraction  of  its  potential.  The  area  necessary 
to  support  a  small  nomadic  band  could  maintain  thousands  of  times  as 
many  Europeans.  Like  the  servant  who  buried  his  talents  in  the  ground, 
the  Indian  was  justly  deprived  of  even  that  which  he  had.  To  those 
whites  on  the  North  American  settlement  frontiers ,  the  righteousness 
of  this  argument  was  obvious. It  also  had  a  certain  egalitarian 
appeal.  A  variant  of  this  case  can  still  be  heard  wherever  the 
necessity  for  "agrarian  reform"  is  urged. 


12See,  for  example,  "Messages  from  the  Cree  Chiefs  of  the 
Plains,  Saskatchewan,"  to  His  Excellency  Governor  Archibald,  April  13, 
1871,  Edmonton  House;  in  Alexander  Morris,  The  Treaties  of  Canada  with 
the  Indians  of  Manitoba  and  the  North-West  Territories,  Coles  Canadians 
Collection  (Toronto:  Coles  Publishing  Company,  1971),  pp.  169-171. 

See  also  James  Seenum  and  58  others,  to  A.  G.  Archibald,  January  9, 
1871,  White fish  Lake;  in  Public  Archives  of  Manitoba,  Adams  G.  Archi¬ 
bald  Papers,  No.  169. 


1^In  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Swiss  Jurist,  Emmerich  de 
Vattel  argued  that  the  failure  of  a  people  to  cultivate  their  lands  is 
a  sufficient  reason  for  people  from  crowded  nations  to  gain  the  right 
to  take  possession  of  such  lands  and  place  them  under  cultivation.  In 
relating  this  general  principle,  Vattel  makes  specific  reference  to  the 
case  of  the  Americas ,  Emmerich  de  Vattel  The  Law  of  Nations ;  or 
Principles  of  the  Law  of  Nature  Applied  to  the  Conduct  and  Affairs  of 
Nations  and  Sovereigns.  (Joseph  Chitty,  ea.)  (Philadelphia:  T.  &  J.  W. 
Johnson  Law  Booksellers,  1852).  Rev.  George  Grant  declared  of  the 
Indian  of  North  Western  Ontario,  "His  wild,  wandering  life  is  incon¬ 


sistent  with  modern  requirements : 


vast  regions  were  surely  meant 


these 


The  second  rationalization  was  that  the  indigenous  peoples  of 


the  Americas  would  gain  far  more  than  they  would  lose.  While  the 
Europeans  might  deprive  the  Indian  of  his  land,  they  would  ultimately 
confer  a  greater  benefit  upon  him:  they  would  civilize  him  and 
assimilate  him  into  the  superior  culture  of  the  white  man.  In  times 
when  Western  Civilization  possessed  that  self  assurance  of  which  it  is 
now  so  rapidly  divesting  itself,  the  inferiority  of  the  American  Indian 
way  of  life  was  all  but  universally  accepted  by  men  of  European  origin 
everywhere.  While  not  all  whites  were  convinced  that  the  red  man  was 
capable  of  successfully  adjusting  to  the  superior  standards  of  Western 
Civilization,  most  were  agreed  that  by  taking  unto  themselves  a  moral 
obligation  to  attempt  to  uplift  and  assimilate  the  Indians,  the  govern¬ 
mental  authorities  of  both  Canada  and  the  United  States  were  being  more 
than  generous  to  this  continent's  original  peoples.14  As  we  shall  see, 
these  two  arguments  were  to  play  no  small  part  in  the  history  of  the 


to  maintain  more  than  a  few  thousand  0 j ibbeways . "  In  Rev.  George  M. 
Grant ,  Ocean  to  Ocean:  Sanford  Fleming's  Expedition  Through  Canada  in 
1872 ,  Coles  Canadian a  Collection  (Toronto:  Coles  Publishing  Co. ,  1970) , 
p.  34 . 


1 4 Alexander  Morris ' s  parting  words  in  his  account  of  the  Indian 
Treaties  in  the  North-West  were:  "Let  us  have  Christianity  and  civil¬ 
ization  to  leaven  the  mass  of  heathenism  and  paganism  among  the  Indian 
tribes;  let  us  have  a  wise  and  paternal  Government  faithfully  carrying 
out  the  provisions  of  our  treaties,  and  doing  its  utmost  to  help  and 
elevate  the  Indian  population,  who  have  been  cast  upon  our  care,  and  we 
will  have  peace,  progress,  and  concord  among  them  in  the  North-West; 
and  instead  of  the  Indian  melting  away  .  .  .  ,  we  will  see  our  Indian 
population,  loyal  subjects  of  the  Crown,  happy,  prosperous  and  self- 
sustaining,  and  Canada  will  be  enabled  to  feel,  that  in  a  truly  pat¬ 
riotic  spirit,  our  country  has  done  its  duty  by  the  red  men  of  the 
North-West,  and  thereby  to  herself.  So  may  it  bee",  in  Morris, 
Treaties,  pp.  296-297. 


relations  between  the  Canadian  Government,  and  the  members  of  the 
Passpasschase  Band. 

The  legal  relationship  between  the  Indian  and  the  land  on 
which  he  resided  also  became  a  question  which  has  greatly  influenced 
the  history  of  the  above  mentioned  band.  The  Proclamation  of  1763  had 
invested  some  of  the  Indians  in  British  territory  with  certain  rights 
to  their  hunting  grounds.  In  practical  terms,  the  meaning  of  the  edict 
was  clear  enough.  Colonial  authorities  could  no  longer  issue  patents 
for  land  within  the  territory  west  of  the  Appalachian  watershed  and  the 
boundaries  of  Quebec  and  Florida,  and  south,  of  Rupert's  Land,  until  the 
Crown  had  received  a  surrender  of  the  same  from  the  Indians .  Such 
surrenders  were  only  to  be  made  at  some  public  meeting  or  Assembly  of 
the  Indians  called  for  that  purpose  by  the  Governor  or  the  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  colony  concerned.15 

As  a  result  of  the  Proclamation  it  was  clear  that  'the  Indians 
possessed  legal  rights  to  the  lands  therein  specified,  but  it  gave  no 
hint  as  to  the  nature  of  those  rights .  Not  until  1889  was  any  defini¬ 
tive  decision  on  this  point  reached.  In  the  case  of  St.  Catherines 
Milling  and  Lumber  Company  and  The  Queen ,  the  Judicial  Committee  of 
the  Privy  Council  ruled  that  the  Indians  did  not  hold  legal  title  in 
fee  simple  to  their  unsurrendered  lands.  Rather  they  possessed  a 
personal  and  usufructuary  right,  dependent  upon  the  good  will  of  the 
Sovereign  over  the  same .  The  indigenous  peoples  thus  were  conceded 

15Royal  Proclamation,  October  7,  1763,  Canada,  Revised 
Statutes  of  Canada  (1970) ,  Appendix  II,  No.  1. ,  pp.  123-129. 


the  right  to  use  and  benefit  from  their  lands  so  long  as  the  Crown 
permitted,  but  they  were  denied  the  right  to  alienate  them,  (except 
to  the  Crown)  or  to  alter  them  in  substance. 1 6  While  the  nature 
of  the  usufructuary  right  was  not  delineated  in  detail,  the  decision 
did  interpret  the  past  practice  of  the  British  in  America  as  well  as 
any  legal  judgement  could  be  expected  to  do.  By  the  time  that  judge¬ 
ment  had  been  rendered  in  the  St.  Catherines  Milling  case,  however, 
the  question  of  aboriginal  rights  to  the  soil  was  declining  in  im¬ 
portance,17  and  the  administration  of  Indian  reserve  lands  had  become 
the  major  preoccupation  of  those  government  officials  responsible  for 
Indian  Affairs . 


1 sSt.  Catherines  Milling  and  Lumber  Company  and  The  Queen  on 
the  Information  of  the  Attorney-General  for  Ontario  ( The  Law  Reports; 
Privy  Council,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  46.). 

17By  1889  the  Canadian  Government  had  concluded  treaties  with 
the  Indians  in  almost  all  of  the  areas  where  it  was  considered 
politically  feasible  to  do  so,  and  where  there  was  any  immediate 
prospect  of  extensive  white  settlement.  Quebec  and  the  Maritimes 
were  East  of  the  Proclamation  Line,  and  since  the  French  had  not 
seen  fit  to  treat  with  the  Indians  for  their  rights  to  the  soil, 
there  apparently  had  been  no  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  British, 
who  succeeded  them,  to  unsettle  the  European  inhabitants  of  those 
areas  by  raising  the  question.  Cumming  and  Mickenberg,  Native  Rights, 
pp.  80-91  and  94-105.  Similarly,  from  1871  onwards,  British  Columbia 
refused  to  recognize  aboriginal  rights  and  thus  would  not  consent  to 
any  Federal  Government  attempts  to  extinguish  them.  Ibid . ,  pp.  171- 
193.  Since  1889,  only  six  new  treaties  have  been  signed  in  Canada 
for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  aboriginal  claims:  Treaties  8,  9,  10, 
and  11,  the  1923  Treaty,  and  the  James  Bay  Agreement.  (The  area 
encompassed  by  Treaty  5  was  also  expanded.)  With  the  exception  of 
the  Peace  River  Block  in  Treaty  8,  and  the  land  covered  by  the  1923 
Treaty  in  Eastern  Ontario,  regions  covered  by  the  more  recent  treaties 
are  still  largely  unsettled  by  white  Canadians. 


1 


The  Indian  reserve18  as  an  institution  had  diverse  origins. 

As  early  as  1516,  Cardinal  Ximenes ,  the  Regent  of  Castile,  had  autho¬ 
rized  the  establishment  of  segregated  Indian  communities  in  the  West 
Indies,  where  no  Spaniards  other  than  an  appointed  administration  and 
the  officials  of  the  Catholic  Church  would  be  permitted  to  reside.  The 
plan  was  designed  to  prevent  the  imminent  extinction  of  the  native  pop¬ 
ulation  at  the  hands  of  the  avaricious  colonists,  but  before  it  could 
be  implemented,  the  ravages  of  smallpox  had  almost  obliterated  the 
people  it  was  intended  to  save.18  In  New  France,  the  first  reserves 
were  designed,  not  to  segregate  the  Indians  from  the  society  and 
culture  of  the  colonists,  but  to  assimilate  them  into  it.  In  the  1630s, 
the  Jesuit  missionary.  Father  Le  Jeune ,  conceived  of  a  community  in 
close  proximity  to  Quebec  wherein  the  Algonkian  Indians  could  be 
induced  to  abandon  their  nomadic  way  of  life ,  and  learn  to  cultivate 
the  soil.  Once  they  had  adapted  to  a  sedentary  means  of  existence, 
it  was  believed  that  the  natives  would  much  more  readily  grasp  the 
advantages  of  Christianity  and  Western  civilization.  With  the  aid  of 
Noel  Brulart  de  Sillery,  a  devout  philanthropist,  the  Jesuits  were 
enabled  to  put  this  theory  into  practice  with  the  founding  of  St. 

Joseph  de  Sillery  in  1637,  the  first  Indian  reserve  in  Canada.20 

18For  reasons  unknown  to  the  author,  the  term  "reserve”  is  pre¬ 
ferred  for  lands  set  aside  for  Indians  in  Canada.  In  the  United  States 
the  term  "reservation"  is  almost  invariably  employed. 

18MacLeod,  American  Indian  Frontier,  pp.  35,  2 S3 -2 35. 

O  A 

uGeorge  F.  G.  Stanley,  "The  First  Indian  'Reserves'  in  Canada, 
Revue  d'Kistoire  de  l'Araerique  Frangaise ,  Yol .  IV,  No.  2  (September, 
1950),  pp.  178-210. 


Subsequently,  other  missions  were  established  in  New  France  for  like 
purposes,  some  of  which,  such  as  Caughnawaga,  St.  Kegis,  and  Oka 

p  *i 

survive  as  Indian  reserves  to  this  day.  1  In  all  such  cases,  land  was 
granted  either  to  the  Indians  themselves,  or  to  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  for  the  use  and  benefit'  of  the  Indian  converts  living 
there.22  In  practice,  the  close  intermingling  of  Indian  and  white 
too  often  had  undesired  effects.  While  many  of  the  secular  authori¬ 
ties  continued  to  support  a  policy  of  assimilation  of  the  Indians  into 
the  society  of  New  France,  the  officials  of  the  Church  attempted  to 
segregate  their  Indian  converts  from  the  white  colonists  when  they 
began  to  encounter  increasing  difficulties  with  drunkenness  among 
their  native  flocks.23  Thus  the  Indian  reserves  in  New  France,  which 
were  conceived  of  as  the  means  to  assimilation,  quickly  evolved  into 
segregated  communities . 

The  development  of  Indian  reserves  in  the  British  colonies 
was  more  haphazard  than  it  was  among  the  French..  Originally,  the 
English  were  not  inclined  to  acknowledge  any  general  aboriginal  title 


21  Ibid. 

22Ibid.  Only  in  the  case  of  Sillery  was  land  granted  directly 
to  the  Indians.  In  all  other  cases  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  were 
granted  the  land,  usually  with  a  reversionary  clause,  to  the  effect 
that  if  the  land  should  cease  to  be  used  as  an  Indian  mission  it  should 
be  returned  to  the  grantor.  The  land  was  not  always  given  by  the 
Crown.  At  Sillery,  it  was  granted  by  the  Company  of  New  France,  and 
in  many  other  cases  it  was  made  available  by  private  seigneurs.. 

2 3 Ibid.  See  also,  Jean  Delanglez,  Frontenac  and  the  Jesuits 
(Chicago:  Institute  of  Jesuit  History,  1939),  pp.  35-65;  W.  J.  Eccles, 

Frontenac:  The  Courtier  Governor  (Toronto:  McClelland  and  Stewart 


Ltd.,  1959),  pp.  54-58. 


to  the  soil,  but  they  generally  seem  to  have  believed  that  the  Indians 
should  be  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  lands  which  they  were 
actively  cultivating  or  actually  residing  upon,  until  such  time  as 
the  owners  had  been  conquered  in  war.24  Most  of  the  Indian  tribes 
on  the  East  Coast  of  America  either  receded  into  the  Interior  in  the 
face  of  British  settlement,  were  driven  there  by  force  of  arms,  or 
were  exterminated.  But  some  tribes  and  individual  Indians  preferred 
to  remain  near  the  European  settlements,  either  because  they  had 
converted  to  the  Christian  religion,  or  because  they  valued  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  the  white  newcomers  against  their  ancient  enemies .  A 
few  others,  remnants  of  defeated  tribes,  had  to  be  provided  for  by 
colonial  authorities  after  the  martial  supremacy  of  the  Europeans 
had  been  established.  In  such  cases,  small  reservations  of  land  for 

or 

the  use  and  occupancy  of  the  Indians  were  often  set  aside.  3  As  the 
British  expanded  their  colonial  Empire  into  the  formerly  French  poss¬ 
ession  in  Acadia,  land  was  set  aside  for  the  Indian  residents  in  a 
similarly  haphazard  fashion.  Bands  of  Indians  would  be  granted 


2 4 Myra  Kingsbury,  (ed.) ,  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company, 

Vol.  Ill,  pp.  556-557;  as  quoted  in  Hugh  T.  Lefler ,  (ed.) ,  A 
History  of  the  United  States .  From  the  Age  of  Exploration  to  1865 , 
Meridian  Documents  of  American  History,  (Cleveland:  The  World 
Publishing  Company,  1960),  p.  55. 

25MacLeod,  American  Indian  Frontier,  pp.  387-392.  The  first 
Indian  reserve  in  Connecticut  was  established  in  1649;  the  first  in 
Massachusetts  was  established  in  1651.  Lands  were  first  assigned  to 
Indians  by  the  colonial  authorities  in  Virginia  in  1656,  and  it  was 
in  that  colony  that  the  regulation  that  Indian  reservation  lands 
should  be  inalienable  first  appeared.  Maryland  made  provision  for  an 
Indian  reserve  in  1704,  and  Pennsylvania  in  1717. 


15 


reserves  when  their  members  had  decided  to  become  farmers ,  or  when  the 
colonial  authorities  had  determined  that  it  was  time  for  them  to  do 
so.26 

But  the  establishment  of  these  small  Indian  enclaves  in.  the 
British  colonies  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  had  a  rather  different 
origin  than  did  the  reserves  that  were  later  created  in  the  Interior. 
In  addition  to  affirming  the  legal  status  of  aboriginal  rights,  the 
Proclamation  of  1763  had  also  established  an  Indian  boundary  line 
along  the  Appalachian  watershed.27  An  'Indian  Territory'  was  created 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Great  Lakes  basin,  and  no  British 
subject  was  permitted  to  settle  any  portion  of  that  territory  until 
the  Crown  had  purchased  the  desired  land  from  the  tribes  interested 
in  it.28  In  subsequent  years  the  British  and  American  authorities 
concluded  treaties  with  Indians  to  the  west  of  the  boundary  line 
whereby  large  tracts  of  the  Indian  Territory  were  purchased  to  be 
opened  up  for  white  settlers.  The  native  population  could  not  be 

26E.  Palmer  Patterson  II *  The  Canadian  Indian:  A  History 
Since  1500  (Don  Mills,  Ontario:  Collier  MacMillan  Canada  Ltd,, 

1972) ,  pp.  62-65. 

27Royal  Proclamation,  October  7,  1763,  Canada,  Revised 
Statutes  of  Canada  (1970)/  Appendix  II,  No.  1.,  pp.  123-129. 

28Max  Farrand,  "The  Indian  Boundary  Line,”  American 
Historical  Review,  Vol.  X  (1904-1905) ,  pp.  782-791. 


16 


pushed  westward  forever,  and  areas  which  the  Indians  wished  to 
preserve  for  their  own  use  were  eventually  encircled  by  European 
settlement.  Such  lands  came  to  be  known  as  Indian  reserves.29 

In  Canada,  the  process  of  establishing  Indian  reserves  was  to 
go  through  another  permutation.  As  the  years  passed,  it  became 
increasingly  common  for  certain  lands  which  had  recently  been  purchased 
from  the  Indians  by  the  Crown  to  be  designated  as  reserves  by  the  Can¬ 
adian  authorities.  In  this  fashion,  Manitoulin  Island  was  set  aside 
as  an  intended  home  for  a  majority  of  the  Indians  of  Upper  Canada  in 
1836. 30  A  similar  procedure  was  employed  more  extensively  in  Western 
Canada.  Many  of  the  numbered  treaties  provided  for  the  cession  of  the 
Indian  interest  in  large  territories ,  with  the  proviso  chat  reserves  of 
a  specified  area  but  at  unspecified  locations,  would  be  set  apart  for 
the  Indian  bands  when  they  desired  to  settle  permanently.31  By  the 


29Farrand,  "Indian  Boundary  Line,"  pp.  782-791;  MacLeod, 
American  Indian  Frontier,  pp.  439-440;  Wilbur  R.  Jacobs,  Dis¬ 
possessing  the  American  Indian:  Indians  and  Whites  on  the  Colonial 
Frontier  (New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1972) ,  pp.  103  and 
206. 

3  °Patterson ,  The  Canadian  Indian ,  pp.  86-88. 

310f  the  numbered  Treaties,  Treaties  3,  4,  6,  8,  10,  and  11, 
made  no  mention  whatsoever  of  the  location  of  reserves,  only  specifying 
that  they  were  to  be  of  sufficient  size  to  provide  128  acres  per 
capita.  Treaties  1,  2,  5,  7,  and  9  did  include  in  their  texts  approxi¬ 
mate  locations  for  reserves  that  ware  to  be  set  aside  under  their  terms. 
The  language  employed  in  these  treaties  was  that  "Her  said  Majesty  the 
Queen,  hereby  agrees  and  undertakes  to  lay  aside  and  reserve  for  the 
sole  and  exclusive  use  of  the  Indians,  the  following  tracts  of 


twentieth  century,  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  had  come  to  regard 
the  establishment  of  Indian  reserves  to  be  as  much  a  matter  of  sound 
public  policy  as  of  treaty  obligation.  In  1909,  Duncan  Campbell  Scott, 
an  official  with  more  than  thirty  years  experience  in  the  depart¬ 
ment,  32  declared  that  land  had  been  set  aside  for  bands  on  the  western 
prairies,  not  only  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  treaties,  but 
also  .  .to  give  the  Indians  certain  freedom  of  movement,  and  .  .  . 
to  form  an  Estate  which  would  be  of  value  to  them  in  the  future.”33 

Given  the  diverse  origins  of  the  Indian  reserves  in  Canada, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  when  it  became  necessary  to  define  the 


land.  .  .  ."or  words  to  that  effect.  This  clause  invariably  followed 
the  stipulation  that  the  Indians  had  surrendered  their  rights  to  the 
entire  area  over  which  their  aboriginal  claims  extended.  Thus,  in  all 
of  the  numbered  Treaties,  reserves  were  set  aside  by  the  Crown  from 
land  to  which  the  aboriginal  title  had  been  extinguished.  They  were 
not  "reserved"  by  the  Indians  from  the  land  cession  made  to  the  Crown. 
For  evidence  that  the  Indians  of  the  Prairies  viewed  the  matter 
differently,  however,  see  John  L.  Tobias,  "Indian  Reserves  in  Western 
Canada:  Indian  Homelands  or  Devices  for  Assimilation?"  in  D . A.  Muise 

ed. ,  Approaches  to  Native  History  in  Canada:  Papers  of  a  Conference 
Held  at  the  National  Museum  of  Man,  October,  1975,  History  Division 
Paper  #25,  National  Museum  of  Man,  Mercury  Series,  (Ottawa:  National 
Museums  of  Canada,  1977),  pp.  89-103. 

32 In  1909  Scott  was  the  accountant  for  the  Department  of  Indian 
Affairs  but  his  interests  extended  beyond  those  of  a  mere  bookkeeper. 
Four  years  later  he  was  appointed  Deputy  Superintendent  General,  a 
position  equivalent  to  Deputy  Minister  in  other  departments.  Ail  in  al 
Duncan  Campbell  Scott,  who  was  also  a  noted  poet  and  author,  spent  more 
than  fifty  years  in  the  Indian  Affairs  bureaucracy. 

33Duncan  Campbell  Scott  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General, 
memorandum,  March  22,  1909,  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs 
File  671/30-12-159  vol.  1.  A  dispute  had  arisen  as  to  whether  a 
reserve  of  the  same  area  as  that  provided  for  by  the  terms  of  Treaty  6 
should  be  given  to  a  Saskatchewan  Indian  Sand  that  had  refused  to 
adhere  to  the  Treaty.  Scott’s  position  was  endorsed  by  the  Deputy 
Superintendent  General,  Frank  Pedley,  and  even  by  the  Superintendent 
General,  Frank  Oliver,  although  the  latter  added  the  proviso  that  most 
of  the  land  be  selected  in  areas  undesirable  for  white  settlement. 
Incredible  bureaucratic  confusion  prevented  the.  band  in  question  from 


IS 


institution  for  legal  purposes,  Parliament  was  deliberately  vague. 

The  Indian  Act  of  1876  declared  that: 

The  term  "reserve"  means  any  tract  or  tracts  of  land 
set  apart  by  treaty  or  otherwise  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  or  granted  to  a  particular  band  of  Indians,  of  which 
the  legal  title  is  in  the  Crown, 3Lf  but  which  is  unsur¬ 
rendered,  and  includes  all  the  trees,  wood,  timber,  soil, 
stone,  minerals,  metals,  or  other  valuables  thereon. 

The  law  was  not  only  ambiguous  on  the  question  of  how  an  Indian  reserve 
might  have  originated,  (and  therefore  on  how  a  new  reserve  might  be  est¬ 
ablished)  ,  it  was  also  unclear  as  to  what  legal  responsibilities  the 
Crown  assumed  for  the  lands  contained  within  them.  Other  sections  of 
the  Indian  Act  gave  the  Federal  Government  full  administrative  authority 


ever  receiving  the  area  of  land  that  had  been  agreed  upon.  D.I.N.A., 
File  671/30-12-159  vol .  1,  passim.  Public  Archives  of  Canada,  Records 
of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  (R.G.  10) ,  Vol.  7767,  File 
27107-11,  passim.  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  7779,  File 
27140.  Saskatchewan  Archives  Board,  Saskatoon,  Homestead  Files, 

No.  1215019. 

31+By  the  fundamental  principle  of  English  land  tenure,  the 
underlying  title  to  all  land  was  in  the  Crown.  On  all  lands  for  which 
patents  or  grants  had  not  been  issued,  the  full  title  was  assumed  to 
remain  with  the  Crown,  (although  the  Indians,  by  use  and  occupancy, 
might  have  established  an  interest  in  it) .  Thus,  even  in  cases  where 
a  reserve  had  been  created  by  the  Indians’  unwillingness  to  surrender 
their  aboriginal  rights  to  a  certain  enclave,  the  "legal  title"  to  such 
land  was  still  considered  to  be  in  the  Crovm.  For  a  discussion  of  the 
origin  of  the  theory  of  English  land  tenure,  see  A.  W.  B.  Simpson,  An 
Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Land  Law  (Oxford:  Oxford  University 
Press,  1961),  pp.  1-23. 

3 3 Cana da,  Statutes  of  Canada.  An  Act  to  Amend  and  Consolidate 
the  Laws  Respecting  Indians  (The  Indian  Act,  1876) ,  39  Vic.,  Cap  18, 

Sec.  3vi.  Essentially  the  same  definition  was  repeated  in  all  Indian 
Acts  until  1951.  In  the  case  of  the  Indian  reserves  in  Quebec  and  of 
the  Lennox  Island  Reserve  in  Prince  Edward  Island,  the  legal  title  was 
not  held  by  the  Crown  but  by  religious  or  philanthropic  societies.  Such 
reserves  were  designated  "special  reserves"  by  the  Indian  Act.  Canada, 
The  Indian  Act,  1876,  39  Vic.,  Cap  18,  Sec.  3vii. 


19 


over  reserves.36  By  retaining  the  title  to  and  administrative  control 
of  lands  which  were  set  aside  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  Indian  bands , 
the  Crown  placed  itself  in  a  position  which  resembled  that  of  a  legal 
trustee.  Whether  the  statute  created  any  fiduciary  responsibilities 
for  reserve  lands  has  not  yet  been  decided  by  the  Courts.37 

The  Crown's  fiduciary  responsibility  was  perhaps  most  relevant 
to  the  question  of  how  lands  set  aside  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  a 
particular  band  could  be  legally  alienated.  Historically,  the  pro¬ 
cedure  for  reserve  land  surrenders  evolved  from  the  process  for  the 
cession  of  aboriginal  rights.  The  Proclamation  of  1763  had  estab¬ 
lished  a  Crown  monopoly  for  the  purchase  of  Indian  lands,  and  stipu¬ 
lated  that  the  transaction  must  be  agreed  to  at  a  public  meeting  of 
the  Indians  called  for  that  purpose.33  From  1763  forward,  treaties 
designed  to  extinguish  aboriginal  rights  and  contracts  for  the  sale 
of  reserve  lands  alike,  were  usually  negotiated  according  to  the 
relatively  simple  requirements  of  the  Proclamation. 36  After  Confed- 


36Canada,  The  Indian  Act,  1876,  39  Victoria,  Cap  18,  Secs. 

4-60. 

3/The  Courts  have  proved  very  reluctant  to  find  that  the 
Crown  has  any  fiduciary  responsibilities.  See  L.  C.  Green,  "Trustee¬ 
ship  and  Canada's  Indians,"  Dalhousie  Law  Journal,  Vol.  3,  No.  1 
(1976),  pp.  104-135. 

3 8 Royal  Proclamation,  October  7,  1763,  Canada,  Revised 
S t atu t e s  of  C an ada  (1970),  Appendix  II,  No.  1.,  pp.  123-129. 

3 "There  were,  of  course,  exceptions,  particularly  in  the 
Maritime  provinces ,  where  the  alienation  of  Indian  reserve  lands 
was  often  accomplished  without  the  consent  of  the  Indians  concerned. 
Cumming  and  Mickenberg,  Native  Rights,  pp.  100-105. 


20 


eration  a  distinction  began  to  be  made,  however.  Treaties  continued 
to  be  negotiated  at  large  public  meetings  of  the  Indians  and  the 
Federal  Government's  commissioners,  with  little  or  no  statutory 
guidance.40  But  surrenders  of  reserve  lands  were  made  the  subject  of 
particular  legislation  in  1868,  when  Parliament  declared  that  no 
release  or  surrender  would  be  valid  or  binding  unless  it  was  assented 
to  by  the  chief  (or  a  majority  of  the  chiefs)  of  the  band  interested, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  band  called  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the 
band  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  surrender,  and  held  in  the 
presence  of  a  duly  authorized  official  of  the  Federal  Government.  The 
same  Act  also  stipulated  that  no  Indian  who  did  not  habitually  reside 
on  or  near  the  lands  to  be  surrendered  would  be  entitled  to  attend  the 
meeting;  that  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  band  and  the  government  official 
authorized  to  attend  the  surrender  meeting  must  swear  on  oath  before 
sane  Judge  of  a  Superior,  County,  or  District  Court  that  the  release 
or  surrender  had  been  properly  assented  to;  and  that  the  surrender  must 
be  accepted  by  the  Governor  in  Council.41 


40The  treaties  assumed  a  number  of  forms  and  were  not  ratified 
by  Parliament,  leading  most  scholars  to  affirm  that  they  were  not 
"treaties"  at  all,  in  the  sense  that  the  word  is  used  in  International 
diplomacy.  See  L.  C.  Green,  "Legal  Significance  of  Treaties  Affecting 
Canada's  Indians",  Anglo-American  Law  Review ,  Vol .  1,  No.  1,  (1972), 

pp.  119-135. 

4 1 Canada ,  Statutes  of  Canada,  An  Act  Providing  for  the 
Organization  of  the  Department  of  Secretary  of  State  of  Canada,  and 

for  the  Management  of  Indian  and  Ordnance  Lands,  1868,  31  Victoria, 

Cap  42,  Sec.  8. 


Eight  years  later,  the  Indian  Act  of  1876  made  the  requirements 


more  stringent.  That  statute  stipulated  that: 

25.  No  reserve  or  portion  of  a  reserve  shall  be  sold, 
alienated  or  leased  until  it  has  been  released  or 
surrendered  to  the  Crown  for  the  purposes  of  this  Act. 

26.  No  release  or  surrender  of  a  reserve,  or  portion 
of  a  reserve,  held  for  the  use  of  the  Indians  of  any 
band  or  of  any  individual  Indian  shall  be  valid  or 
binding,  except  on  the  following  conditions :- 

1.  The  release  or  surrender  shall  be  assented 
to  by  a  majority  of  the  male  members  of  the 
band  of  the  full  age  of  twenty-one  years,  at  a 
meeting  or  council  thereof  summoned  for  that 
purpose  according  to  their  rules,  and  held  in 
the  presence  of  the  Superintendent-General, 1+2 
or  of  an  officer  duly  authorized  to  attend  such 
council  by  the  Governor  in  Council  or  by  the 
Superintendent-General;  Provided  that  no  Indian 
shall  be  entitled  to  vote  or  be  present  at  such 
council,  unless  he  habitually  resides  on  or  near 
and  is  interested  in  the  reserve  in  question; 

2.  The  fact  that  such  release  or  surrender  has  been 
assented  to  by  the  band  at  such  council  or  meeting, 
shall  be  certified  on  oath  before  some  judge  of  a 
superior,  county,  or  district  court,  or  stipendiary 
magistrate,  by  the  Superintendent-General  or  by  the 
officer  authorized  by  him  to  attend  such  council 

or  meeting,  and  by  some  one  of  the  chiefs  or 
principal  men  present  thereat  and  entitled  to  vote, 
and  when  so  certified  as  aforesaid  shall  be  submitted 
to  the  Governor  in  Council  for  acceptance  or 
refusal;-43 


4~The  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs  was  the  Cabinet 
Minister  responsible  for  the  administration  of  Indian  Affairs.  In 
1876,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  held  this  position.  After  1880, 
however,  Indian  Affairs  was  made  a  separate  portfolio,  although,  until 
the  1930's,  the  duties  of  the  Superintendent  General  and  of  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  were  usually  performed  by  the  same  individual. 

43T'rie  Indian  Act,  1876,  39  Vic.,  Cap  18,  Secs.  25  and  26,  i, 
ii.  Subsection  3  of  section  26  provided  that  the  Superintendent 
General  could  issue  licenses  to  cut  and  remove  urees,  wood,  timber, 
hay,  stone,  or  gravel,  after  receiving  the  ordinary  consent  of  the 
band  concerned. 


22 


These  legal  requirements  remained  virtually  unchanged  until  1951. 44 

While  the  general  procedure  for  taking  surrenders  was  clear 
enough,  the  wording  of  the  Indian  Act  was  ambiguous  on  a  number  of  key 
points.  The  "rules"  of  many  bands  were  rather  vague  and  uncertain, 
and  it  was  therefore  often  questionable  whether  a  meeting  had  been 
called  in  accordance  with  them  or  not.  Furthermore,  no  precise  defi¬ 
nition  was  given  of  how  "near"  a  reserve  a  participant  in  a  surrender 
vote  would  have  to  reside.  The  most  significant  ambiguity,  however, 
concerned  the  nature  of  the  "majority"  that  would  be  required.  When 
the  bill  was  before  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Superintendent  General 
of  Indian  Affairs,  David  Laird,  declared  that  a  valid  surrender  would 
require  the  consent  of  merely  a  majority  of  those  present  at  the 
surrender  meeting,  and  not  a  majority  of  the  total  adult  male  member¬ 
ship  of  the  band.45  The  practice  of  the  Department  reflected  Laird's 


44There  were  of  course,  minor  changes  to  these  provisions.  In 
1898,  the  class  of  officials  before  whom  the  required  affidavits  could 
be  swrorn  was  expanded  to  include  the  Indian  Commissioner  for  Manitoba 
and  the  North  West  Territories,  the  Indian  Superintendent  for  British 
Columbia,  and  Justices  of  the  Peace.  A  significant  proviso  was  also 
added  in  1911,  under  the  terns  of  which  Indian  reserves  within  the 
boundaries  of  incorporated  cities  whose  population  exceeded  8000,  could 
be  exempted  from  the  surrender  provisions  of  the  Act.  In  these  cases, 
Indian  reserves  could  be  sold  without  the  consent  of  the  band  concerned, 
upon  the  authority  of  an  Exchequer  Court  judge  who  would  be  appointed 
administrator  of  the  lands  and  guardian  of  the  Indians'  interests. 

While  the  implications  of  this  amendment  were  great,  it  did  not  alter 
the  existing  surrender  requirements,  but  rather  established  a  process 
whereby  certain  reserves  could  be  exempted  from  them.  Canada,  Statutes 
of  Canada ,  61  Victoria  (1898),  Cap  34,  Sec.  3.  Canada,  Statutes  of 
Canada ,  1  George  5  (1911),  Cap  14,  Sec.  2. 

4 5 Canada,  Parliament,  Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Session 
1876  (Ottawa:  Queen's  Printer,  1877),  pp.  752  and  928-929, 


23 


opinion  until  1914, 48  and  the  printed  forms  of  the  affidavits  used  by 
government  officials  before  that  date  merely  required  the  deponents  to 
swear  that  a  surrender  had  been  assented  to  by  a  majority  of  those 
present  at  a  properly  called  meeting.47  On  the  other  hand,  when  the 
matter  was  later  brought  before  the  Department  of  Justice  for  a  legal 
opinion,  the  legal  advisers  to  the  Crown  twice  replied  that  the  law 
was  ambiguous,  but  that  the  better  interpretation  would  be  that  a 
majority  of  all  the  adult  male  members  of  the  band  was  required.  ,8  A 
Royal  Commission  of  three  Manitoba  judges  emphatically  concurred  with 
this  opinion  in  1912. 49  The  question  has  yet  to  be  finally  determined 


4 ^Canada,  Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Session  1910-11, 

Vol.  Ill,  col.  5871.  Duncan  Campbell  Scott,  "Instructions  for  the 
Guidance  of  Indian  Agents  in  Connection  with  the  Surrender  of  Indian 
Reserves,"  May  15,  1914.  Copy  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 

Vol.  7995,  File  1/34-1-0. 

47Canada,  Department  of  Indian  Affairs,  "Form  No.  66."  A  copy 
of  this  form  can  be  found  in  P.A.C.,  Records  of  the  Privy  Council 
(R.G.  2),  Series  1,  Vol.  431,  P.C.  2329/1889.  (October  12,  1889.) 

43E.  L.  Newcombe  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of 
Indian  Affairs,  January  15,  1894,  and  E.  L.  Newcombe  to  the  Deputy 
Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  March  13,  1907.  P . A. . C . , 
Records  of  the  Department  of  Justice  (R.G.  13) ,  Series  3,  Vol.  103, 
pp.  424-425  and  Vol.  140,  pp.  757-759  respectively.  In  the  second  of 
these  cases,  Newcombe  acknowledged  that  if  read  by  themselves,  the 
words  of  the  Statute  would  require  the  majority  of  the  total  band  to 
give  assent  to  a  surrender,  but  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  cf  the 
case  under  consideration,  (all  of  the  Indians  of  Nova  Scotia,  were  con¬ 
sidered  to  belong  to  one  band),  a  majority  of  those  present  at  the 
surrender  meeting  would  suffice.  On  both  occasions  Newcombe  strongly 
urged  that  the  law  be  amended  to  end  the  uncertainty.  His  advice  was 
not  followed. 

4 9 "Indian  Reserve  Surrender  Upset  by  Commission,"  The  Winnipeg 
Telegram,  January  5,  1912,  pp.  1-2,  S,  and  15.  The  full  text  of  the 
Royal  Commission  Report  is  reprinted  in  this  newspaper,  and  this 
version  appears  to  be  the  only  one  available  to  the  public.  The 
Commission,  consisting  of  Judges  Locke,  Prud 1 homme ,  and  Myers,  was 
appointed,  to  investigate  the  surrender  of  the  St.  Peter’s  Reserve 


24 


by  tshe  Courts .  5  0 

The  surrender  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve,  was  to  be  the  first 
surrender  for  sale51  of  any  Indian  Reserve  in  the  Canadian  North  West 

r  o 

following  the  passage  of  the  1876  Indian  Act. As  such,  it  was  not 
the  result  of  any  clear  government  policy,  but  of  a  coincidence  of 
largely  unexpected  events.  In  such  circumstances  the  ambiguities  of 
the  surrender  provisions  of  the  Indian  Act  would  assume  some  impor¬ 
tance. 


near  Selkirk,  Manitoba.  The  nature  of  the  majority  necessary  for  a 
surrender  under  the  Indian  Act  was  the  issue  upon  which  the  judges 
reached  their  conclusion  that  the  surrender  had  been  invalid.  They 
divided  two  to  one,  but  while  Justices  Locke  and  Prud'homme  gave 
detailed  arguments  for  their  view  that  a  majority  of  the  total  adult 
male  membership  of  the  band  was  required,  Justice  Myers  merely  stated 
that  he  disagreed  with  his  colleagues,  without  providing  any  reasons 
for  his  view. 

5(1This  question  is  one  of  those  currently  at  issue  in  the  land 
claim  of  the  Enoch's  Band,  which  is  before  the  Federal  Court  of  Canada. 
Cardinal  v.  The  Queen,  Statement  of  Claim,  June  30,  1975.  Filed  in 
The  Federal  Court  of  Canada,  July  15,  1975. 

^“A  surrender  of  a  reserve  was  made  by  the  Indians  of  Treaty  7 
in  1833.  This  surrender  was  for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  reserve 
land,  however,  not  so  that  land  could  be  sold.  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council 
Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  299,  P.C.  400/1885  (January  24,  1885)  . 

52A  surrender  of  one  square  mile  of  the  St.  Peter's  Reserve, 
near  Selkirk  had  been  made  in  1875.  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records, 

Series  1,  Vol.  115,  P.C.  1037/1875  (October  16,  1875). 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  TREATY  AND  THE  BAND 


The  petition  against  the  Indian  reserve 
at  the  Two  Hills ,  gives  as  reasons  why  it  should 
not  be  granted  there — -First — because  the  Indians 
are  not  satisfied  with  it f  and  ordered  the  survey 
to  be  stopped.  Second — -because  they  have  no  right 
to  it,  not  being  natives  of  this  part  of  the 
country.  Third— because  it  will  oblige  the  neigh¬ 
boring  settlers  to  leave  their  claims,  as  it  takes 
in  their  hay  ground  and  wood  land.  And  fourth- — 
because  it  is  disadvantageous  to  all  parties  to 
have  an  Indian  reserve  so  close  to  a  business 
centre.  A  fifth  reason  might  be  added — because 
the  land  is  needed  by  better  men. 

—The  Bulletin,  January  31,  1881. 


25 


26 


The  land  upon  which  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  came  to  be  est¬ 
ablished  was  included  within  the  vast  area  granted  by  King  Charles  II 
to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  1670.  Representatives  of  that  company 
did  not  penetrate  into  the  Edmonton  district  for  almost  a  century,  and 
when  they  did,  there  is  no  evidence  to  indicate  that  they  attempted  to 
extinguish  any  Indian  rights  to  the  soil.1 *  The  Proclamation  of  1763 
specifically  exempted  Rupert's  Land  from  its  provisions  concerning  the 
Indian  Territory  created  west  of  the  Appalachians Nevertheless,  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  cognizant  of  the  possibility  that  some  abo¬ 
riginal  rights  might  be  held  to  exist  in  its  territories.  It  has  pur¬ 
chased  the  Indian  interest  in  some  of  the  lands  bordering  on  Hudson's 
Bay  in  the  late  seventeenth  century.3 4  Lord  Selkirk  had  made  a  similar 
treaty  with  the  native  tribes  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Red  River  in 
1817. 14  And,  in  the  agreement  whereby  Canada  purchased  Rupert's  Land 
in  1870,  the  Company  was  careful  to  exempt  itself  from  any  liability 
to  compensate  the  Indians  of  the  territory  for  lands  required  for 
settlement. 5 


^E .  E.  Rich,  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  1670-1870  (Toronto: 
McClelland  and  Stewart,  1960,  Vol.  I,  pp .  62-63. 

^Camming  and  Mickenberg,  Native.  Rights,  p.  167. 

3 Morton,  History  of  the  Canadian  West,  pp .  50  and  67. 

4 Ibid . ,  pp.  591-592.  Morris,  Tre aties ,  pp .  13-15,  298-300. 

°S .  Northcote,  G.  E.  Cartier  and  W.  McDougall,  Memorandum . 
"Details  of  Agreement  between  the  Delegates  of  the  Government  of  the 
Dominion  and  the  Directors  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,"  March  22, 
1869,  pt.  8.  Copy  in  P.A.C.,  Sir  Join  A.  Macdonald  Papers  (M.G .  26A) , 
Vol.  101,  No.  40061-40103. 


27 


When  Canada  acquired  the  North  West,  she  did  so  with  the  clear 
intention  of  opening  it  to  agricultural  settlement.  If  such  settlement 
were  to  proceed  peacefully,  it  was  apparent  that  some  accommodation 
would  have  to  be  made  with  the  Indian  and  Metis  inhabitants  of  the  arable 
portions  of  the  territories  and  the  Canadian  approaches  to  them — a  point 
that  was  driven  home  by  the  tragicomic  events  of  1869-70.  The  means  by 
which  the  Canadian  Government  attempted  to  satisfy  the  Metis  cannot  be 
dealt  with  here,  and  its  general  policy  towards  the  Indians  of  the 
North  West  must,  of  necessity,  be  dealt  with  summarily  except  as  it  is 
reflected  by  events  of  importance  to  the  Passpasschase  Band. 

The  administrations  of  John  A.  Macdonald  and  Alexander 
Mackenzie  were  perhaps  not  disinclined  to  concede  that  the  Indians 
possessed  certain  ill-defined  rights  to  the  soil,  and  to  extinguish 
the  same  before  proceeding  with  the  settlement  of  the  country,  but 
they  were  not  predisposed  to  move  hastily  in  the  matter. ^  Many  cf  the 


^Evidence  for  this  statement  is  provided  by  the  instruc¬ 
tions  given  to  William  McDougall  and  to  Adams  Archibald  upon  their 
respective  appointments  as  Governor  of  the  North  West  Territories. 

E.  A.  M[eredith],  Under  Secretary  of  State,  to  William  McDougall, 

Sept.  28,  1869,  P.A.C.,  Records  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Provinces  (R.G.  6  C-l) ,  Vol.  9,  File  929.  E.  A.  Meredith  to 
A.  Archibald,  Aug.  4,  [1870],  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  448. 

Macdonald  was  personally  unwilling  to  give  too  much  importance  to 
Indian  rights.  John  A.  Macdonald  to  J.  Rose,  Dec.  5,  1869,  P.A.C., 
Macdonald  Papers,  Letterbook  13,  p.  646.  In  1873,  the  Federal  Govern¬ 
ment  decided  to  postpone  indefinitely  the  negotiation  of  any  Indian 
treaties  west  of  Manitoba.  Alexander  Campbell  to  Alexander  Morris, 

Aug.  5,  1873;  and  same  to  same,  Aug.  6,  1873,  in  Public  Archives  of 
Manitoba,  Alexander  Morris  Papers,  Items  38  and  39.  The  Liberal 
administration  of  Alexander  Mackenzie  was  similarly  reluctant  to  incur 
the  expense  of  a  treaty  with  the  Blackfeet,  unless  it  was  absolutely 
necessary.  A.  Mackenzie  to  Lt.  Governor  Morris,  (telegram)  July  28, 
1876,  P.A.C.,  Alexander  Morris  Papers  (Manitoba),  Telegram  Book  No.  2. 


Indians,  by  contrast,  were  anxious  to  have  the  matter  settled.  They 
had  been  greatly  disconcerted  when  they  learned  that  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  had  sold  the  lands  they  had  always  regarded  as  their  own,7  and 
were  prepared  to  take  action  to  force  recognition  of  their  claims.8 

Beginning  in  1871,  the  Canadian  Government  negotiated  a  series 
of  seven  treaties  with  the  Indians  of  its  newly  acquired  territory, 
covering  the  territory  from  the  height  of  land  west  of  Lake  Superior  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  from  the  American  border  to  the  northern  edge 
of  the  Saskatchewan  River  and  Lake  Winnipeg  basins.  The  treaties  were 
not  easily  concluded,8  and  the  Canadian  authorities  were  compelled  to 


7See  Sweetgrass's  message  to  Governor  Archibald,  April  12, 

1871,  reprinted  in  Morris,  Treaties ,  pp.  170-171,  and  the  extensive 
discussion  of  this  issue  in  the  negotiation  of  Treaty  4  in  1874. 

Ibid. ,  pp.  77-123. 

81he  Indians  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  district  insisted  that 
no  whites  should  cut  timber  on  their  lands  until  a  treaty  was  made. 
Robert  Pither  [to  Gov.  Archibald],  Oct.  14,  1870,  in  P.A.M.,  Archibald 
Papers,  Item  No.  34.  The  Indians  near  Portage  la  Prairie  refused  to 
allow  Canadian  immigrants  to  farm  their  lands  until  the  Indian  rights 
to  it  had  been  purchased.  Rev.  William  Fletcher  to  Archibald,  Oct.  25, 
1870,  ibid. ,  Item  No.  58.  They  threatened  to  seize  the  improvements  of 
any  settler  who  defied  them:  Moosoos ,  Notice  witnessed  by  Fred  Bird, 
Dec.  17,  1870,  ibid . ,  Item  No.  150.  Crees  near  Fort  Carlton  halted  a 
geological  survey  party,  and  threatened  to  force  the  cessation  of  the 
construction  of  a  telegraph  line  because  the  treaty  which  they  had 
been  promised  had  not  been  made:  A.  Morris,  telegram  to  D.  Laird, 

July  21,  1875;  same  to  same,  Aug.  3,  1875,  both  in  P.A.C.,  Alexander 
Morris  Papers  (Manitoba) ,  Telegram  Book  No.  2.  Besides  these 
treatened  and  threatening  actions,  there  were  many  other  pleas  from 
Indian  bands  throughout  the  North  West  asking  that  the  authorities  make 
a  treaty  with  them. 

^Morris,  Treaties ,  passim.  Treaties  2  and  5  did  not  involve 
much  hard  bargaining.  Treaty  2,  however,  was  made  with  only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  Indians  living  within  the  surrendered  tract. 

Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  "The  Treaty -Making  Process  in  Western  Canada  1869- 
1877.  A  Preliminary  Report:  The  First  Western  Treaties  1869-1372,"  an 
unpublished  paper  prepared  for  Treaty  and  Aboriginal  Rights  Research  of 
the  Indian  Association  of  Alberta  in  June  of  1974,  and  held  in  the 
T.A.R.R.  office  in  Edmonton,  Alberta. 


29 


concede  considerably  more  generous  terms  than  they  had  intended.  In 
1871,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Provinces,  Joseph  Howe,  had  ins¬ 
tructed  Commissioner  W.  M.  Simpson  to  offer  the  Indians  an  annuity  of 
$2.40  per  capita  and  reserves  of  an  unspecified  size,  in  return  for  the 
surrender  of  all  aboriginal  rights  to  the  soil.10  This  proved  quite 
insufficient,  and  Simpson  was  obliged  to  promise  a  larger  annuity, 
agricultural  implements,  livestock,  and  the  maintenance  of  schools,  in 
addition  to  certain  other  minor  provisions.11  Treaty  Three,  nego¬ 
tiated  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Alexander  Morris  in  1873,  added  a  guar¬ 
antee  of  Indian  hunting  and  fishing  rights  on  unoccupied  Crown  lands, 
and  a  yearly  grant  of  ammunition  and  twine  to  aid  them  in  these  pur- 
suits.  Three  years  later,  Treaty  Six,  which  was  negotiated  with  the 
Cree  Indians  of  the  Saskatchewan  River  Valleys  and  adhered  to  by  the 
Passpasschase  Band,  further  added  provisions  for  a  medicine  chest  to 
be  maintained  by  each  Indian  Agent,  and  for  a  small  amount  of  food  to 
be  distributed  for  three  years  at  seed  time.  It  also  contained  a  more 
ominous  advance  over  terms  of  the  earlier  treaties:  an  equivocally 
worded  guarantee  of  Government  relief  in  the  event  of  a  general  pest- 
ilence  or  famine.  The  buffalo,  upon  which  the  Plains  Indians  were 
heavily  dependent  for  so  many  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  were  rapidly 

10 Joseph  Howe  to  W.  M.  Simpson,  S.  J.  Dawson  and  Robert  Pither, 
May  6,  1871;  in  P.A.M.,  Archibald  Papers,  Item  No.  289. 

^Morris,  Treaties ,  pp.  126-127,  313-320,  and  338-339. 

12 Ibid.,  pp.  323-324. 

13 


Ibid. ,  pp.  354-355. 


':V. 


diminishing,  and  the  spectre  of  impending  starvation  haunted  the 
Crees.14  Alexander  Morris,  who  negotiated  the  Treaty  for  the  Canadian 
Government,  reported  that  no  agreement  would  have  been  possible  without 
the  inclusion  of  such  a  promise,15  and  Mackenzie's  cabinet  was  forced 
to  accept  this  "unfortunate  clause".16  The  costly  problem  of  keeping 
the  North  Western  Indians  from  complete  and  utter  starvation  was  to 
cast  a  long  shadow  over  Indian  administration  in  the  decade  following 
1876. 17 

Chief  Passpasschase  and  his  Headman  and  brother,  Tahkoots ,  sign¬ 
ed  an  adhesion  to  this  Treaty  on  August  21,  1877  at  Fort  Edmonton.18 
Two  hundred  and  two  members  of  their  Band  accepted  their  annuities 


14See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3668,  File  10,49G; 
Vol .  3671,  File  10,836-2,  passim. 

15A.  Morris  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  March  27,  1377, 
in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3636,  File  6694-2. 

16D.  Laird  to  David  Mills,  April  17,  1378,  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3654,  File  8904. 

17The  Canadian  Government  expended  $2,250,000  for  relief  to 
the  starving  Indians, of  Treaties  4,  6,  and  7  in  that  period.  John 
Schultz  to  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  May  27,  18S6,  in 
P.A.C.,  Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  154,  No.  62807-62820. 

18 Morris,  Treaties ,  pp.  360-361.  Also,  Canada,  Privy  Council , 
Order  in  Council,  July  17,  1878,  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series 
1,  Vol.  163,  P.C.  619/1878.  This  Order  in  Council  accepts  the  adhesion 
to  Treaty  of  Chiefs  Alexis  and  Alexander,  who  entered  Treaty  on  the 
same  occasion.  It  overlooks  the  adhesion  of  Passpasschase,  however. 
Like  many  other  Indian  names,  "Passpasschase"  was  spelled  in  a  bewild¬ 
ering  variety  of  ways.  "Passpasschase,"  which  is  the  spelling  employed 
throughout  this  account,  is  the  form  most  commonly  employed  in  the 
Records  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs.  "Pahpastayo , "  however, 
was  also  frequently  used,  and  it  would  appear  to  have  been  a  closer 
representation  of  the  actual  Cree  pronunciation.  In  the  1880's, 
government  officials  translated  the  name  as  "Woodpecker". 


with  them.19  Of  this  number  almost  a  quarter,  including  the  chief, 
were  descended  from  John  Quinn,  or  Kwenis,  and  his  wife  Lizette  Gladu 
— two  Cree  Metis  from  the  vicinity  of  Lesser  Slave  Lake.20  This  family 
had  moved  to  Edmonton  House  in  the  late  1850's,21  where  they  undertook 
work  for  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  hunted  in  the  Beaver  Hills  to  the 
South  East.22  The  Quinn  family,  or  the  "Tah-coots  outfit"  as  it  was 
not  affectionately  denominated, 2 3  did  not  have  an  enviable  reputation 
with  other  Edmonton  residents.  Tahkoots ,  called  "The  Murderer",24  was 


19Canada,  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  Geneal¬ 
ogical  and  Archival  Research  Unit,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  Treaties  4, 

6,  and  7,  1874-1878  -  Passpasschase  Band;  records  in  the  possession  of 
D.I.N.A.,  Ottawa. 

20 Ibid. ,  and  P.A.C.,  Records  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
(R.G.  15),  Vol .  1364,  File  "Quinney  to  Quintal".  John  Quinn  had  six 
sons;  Passpasschase,  alias  John  Gladu  Quinn;  Batteau,  alias  Charles 
Gladu  Quinn;  Tahkoots,  alias  William  Gladu  Quinn;  Satooch,  alias 
Edward  Gladu  Quinn;  George  Meecham,  alias  George  Gladu  Quinn;  and 
Abraham  Gladu  Quinn.  Passpasschase  and  Tahkoots  both  had  more  than  one 
wife,  and  all  six  brothers  had  large  families. 

21See  the  Half-Breed  Scrip  Applications  for  Abraham  Quinn, 
Charles  Quinn  or  Gladu,  George  Quinn,  John  Quinns  Gladu,  Lizette  Gladu 
Quinns;  all  July  31/  1886;  and  Edward  Quinn,  alias  Gladu,  July  28, 

1886;  in  P.A.C.,  Interior  Records,  Vol.  1364,  File  "Quinney  to  Quintal. 
Passpasschase  appears  to  have  come  to  Edmonton  in  1856,  the  others  in 
1858  or  1859. 


22Ibid.  Also  P.  H.  Belcher  and  John  A.  McDougall,  petition  to 
Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  n.d. ,  [January  13,  1881]  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3737,  File  27,596.  "Mass  Meeting",  The  Bulletin, 
(Edmonton,  N.W.T.),  January  17,  1881,  p.l. 

23 "Edmonton",  Saskatchewan  Herald,  (Battleford,  N.W.T.), 
September  27,  1880,  p.2.  The  Herald's  Edmonton  correspondent  was 
Frank  Oliver. 


24G.  A.  Simpson  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs 
December  1,  1.880;  in  Canada,  House  of  Commons,  Sessional  Papers  for 
1880-31,  Vol.  XIV,  (No.  14),  p.  108. 


32 


one  important  reason.  Two  visitors  in  1870  told  of  four  treacherous 
murders  in  which  he  had  participated  in  that  year  alone,25  all  upon 
Sarcees  and  Blackfeet.  One  of  these  outrages  brought  about  a  short¬ 
lived  Blackfoot  attack  on  Fort  Edmonton  in  retaliation.26  The  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  would  attempt  to  purchase  the  safety  of  Blackfoot  trading 
parties  from  Tahkoots  and  his  friends,  but  this  was  not  very  success¬ 
ful.  The  marauders  would  take  the  bribe,  but  only  honour  the  agree¬ 
ment  if  it  suited  them.27 

With  the  Quinn  family  there  were  associated  other  Cree  who  had 
come  to  live  and  hunt  near  Edmonton  House:  Cardinals,  Brunneaus, 
Daigneaults,  Decoynes ,  Gladus,  Godins,  Wards,  Bernards,  Batoches, 
Lapotacs,  and  others,  many  of  whom  had  drifted  west  from  the  vicinity 
of  Saddle  Lake  and  Lac  la  Biche  in  the  two  decades  previous  to  the 
treaty.28  There  were  also  pensioners  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company- - 
long-time  servants  who  could  no  longer  hunt  or  freight  and  women  who 
were  the  widows  or  abandoned  wives  of  Company  employees,  with  their 
numerous  children.28  Most  of  these  people  were  of  mixed  white  and 

2 5 Butler,  Great  Lone  Land,  pp.  259-260,  and  388,  and 
Harrison  S.  Young,  "Impressions  of  Fort  Edmonton,"  reprinted  in  the 
Alberta  Historical  Be view,  Vol .  13,  No.  1,  (Winter,  1966),  pp.  22-25. 

^6Young,  "Impressions." 

z7Butler ,  Great  Lone  Land,  p.  388. 

28See  the  Half-Breed  Scrip  Applications  for  1885,  1886,  and 
1900,  in  P.A.C.,  Interior  Records,  Vois.  1325-1371  passim,  for  further 
information  on  these  families . 

29A.  S.  Morton,  Canadian  West,  pp.  699-702;  P „  H.  Belcher  and 
John  A.  McDougall  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  n.d.,  [January  13,  1881], 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3737,  File  27,596;  "Edmonton," 


Indian  blood,  and  much  would  soon  be  made  of  this  fact  by  the  growing 
white  community  at  Edmonton,  but  they  were  evidently  quite  distinct 
from  the  Metis  communities  at  St.  Albert  and  Lac  Ste.  Anne.  While  many 

could  speak  both  English  and  French,* * 3^  almost  all  were  more  comfortable 

3  1 

in  the  use  of  the  Cree  language.  While  a  few  of  them  may  have 
embraced  the  Catholic  or  Methodist  faith,  the  great  majority  clung 
to  the  traditional  Cree  beliefs,  and  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  appears 
to  have  been  a  centre  for  Indian  religious  dances  and  festivals.33 
The  Oblate  priest  assigned  to  shepherd  this  band  presented  a  pathetic 
picture,  usually  unable  to  locate  his  flock,  and  rarely  persuading 
anyone  to  attend  Mass.34  Although  they  had  been  living  in  close 
proximity  to  one  of  the  major  centres  of  the  North  West  for  a  quarter 


Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  13,  1880,  p.  3;  "Mass  Meeting,”  The 
Bulletin,  January  17,  1881,  p.  1. 

3 Indians? , "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  15,  1882,  p.  2.  Frank 
Oliver ' s  Edmonton  newspaper  was  originally  titled  The  Bulletin  and 
maintained  that  name  from  the  date  of  its  first  issue  on  December  6, 
1880,  until  mid-February  of  1881.  Commencing  with  the  issue  of 
February  21,  1881,  the  newspaper  adopted  the  name  of  Edmonton  Bulletin, 
which  it  employed  thereafter. 

3^In  almost  every  case  the  half-breed  scrip  application 
questions  were  translated  into  Cree  for  those  members  of  the  Passpass¬ 
chase  Band  claiming  to  be  Metis.  This  fact  takes  on  added  significance 
when  it  is  remembered  that  at  that  time  the  applicants  were  anxiously 
trying  to  prove  their  white  ancestry.  P.A.C.,  Interior  Records,  Vols. 
1325-1371  passim. 

3 ibid .  Some  baptismal  certificates  were  presented  to  the 
Half-Breed  Commission. 

33"Ooh-ne-pah-qua-see-moo-we-kah-mick, "  Edmonton  Bulletin, 

July  8,  1882,  p.  1;  "The  Thirst  Dance,”  ibid. ,  June  14,  1884,  p.  3; 
untitled  item,  ibid. ,  April  18,  1885,  p.  2. 

34R.  P.  Zeph.  Lizee,  "Mon  Journal  Prive  de  7-7-84  a  19-1-37," 
Alberta  Provincial  Archives,  Edmonton,  Oblate  Papers,  entries  for 


of  a  century  by  1884,  Indian  Commissioner  Edgar  Dewdney  still  thought 

them  "more  Indian  in  action  and  appearance"  than  any  he  had  met  in 
■a  c 

some  time . 

It  was  this  rather  troublesome  group  which  gave  its  adhesion 
to  Treaty  Six  in  August  of  1877.  M.  G.  Dickieson,  clerk  and  general 
assistant  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  North  West  Territories, 
received  the  adhesion.  He  reported  the  Edmonton  Bands'30  as  generally 
willing  to  settle  on  reserves  and  to  farm.  The  Indians  were  very  poor, 

q  *7 

but  he  believed  that  some  were  industrious  "(for  Indians)".  They  had 
been  gardening  with  wooden  spades  and  hoes,  and  were  rather  short  of 
seed.  Dickieson  urged  that  help  be  extended  to  the  Edmonton  Bands, 
and  obtained  the  promised  cooperation  of  North  West  Mounted  Police 

q  q 

Inspector  Jarvis.  He  returned  to  the  seat  of  government  at  Battle- 

q  q 

ford,  and  a  little  aid  was  sent.  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Indian 
Superintendent  for  the  North  West  Territories,  David  Laird,  recommended 


aout  12,  26,  28,  and  29,  1886. 

35e.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent-General  of  Indian  Affairs, 
November  10,  1884,  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3700, 

File  16,692-1. 

36Chiefs  Alexis  and  Alexander  with  their  respective  Bands  also 
entered  the  Treaty  on  August  21,  1877.  See  n.  18  supra . 

37M.  G.  Dickieson,  memorandum,  n.d. ,  [September  14,  1877],  in 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3656,  File  9092. 

3sIbid. 

3^Ey  June  30,  1878,  Pa s spa ss chase 1 * 3 4 s  Band  had  received  1  plough, 
1  harrow,  2  whipple  tree  sets,  8  trace  chains,  4  scythes,  4  snaiths, 

4  hay  forks,  9  axes,  7  hoes,  5  spades,  5  sickles,  2  oxen,  2  carts  with 
harness,  24  bushels  of  seed  barley  and  36  bushels  of  seed  potatoes „ 
Department  of  Interior,  "Statement  showing  distribution  of  Implements, 
Cattle,  Seed,  Grain  etc.  to  the  Indians  of  Treaty  No,  6,  up  to 


that  surveyors  should  be  sent  to  lay  out  the  Indian  reserves  in  the 
near  future,* * * 4^  but  it  was  to  be  almost  three  years  before  any  such 
action  was  undertaken  in  the  Edmonton  district. 

In  the  meantime  the  Passpasschase  Band  was  left  to  its  own 
devices.  Dickieson  returned  in  September  of  1878  to  make  the  annuity 
payments41  prescribed  by  Treaty  Six.  He  found  that  while  about  forty 
people  had  left  the  band,  about  seventy  had  joined  it  in  the  inter¬ 
vening  year.42  Some  of  the  Indians  had  tried  to  farm  with  their 
Treaty  implements,  but  had  done  very  poorly.43  The  chase  still  seemed 
a  surer  means  of  support. 

But  within  twelve  months,  the  chase  was  to  fail  completely. 

The  buffalo  disappeared  from  the  Canadian  Prairies  north  of  Cypress 
Hills,  and  hungry  bands  of  Crees  and  Assiniboines  descended  on  Fort 
Edmonton.  They  soon  had  depleted  the  local  game  and  were  left  in  a 
starving  condition.44  They  undoubtedly  would  -have  trekked  the  220 


30th  June,  1878,”  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1879,  Vol.  XII 
(No.  7),  pt.  1,  pp.  62-63. 

40David  Laird  to  David  Mills,  November  19,  1877,  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3656,  File  9092. 

41 "Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  October  7,  1878,  p.  1; 
"Edmonton,"  ibid. ,  November  4,  1878,  p.  1. 

42D.I.N.A„,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1S74-1878  -  Passpasschase 

Band, 

4  3 

M.  G.  Dickieson  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  February  26,  1879,  P.A.C. 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3672,  File  10,853  Vol.  1. 

4 4 Ibid. ;  David  Laird  to  E.  A.  Meredith,  October  3,  1878,  P.A.C 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3658,  File  9399  1/2;  David  Laird  to  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  June  30,  1879,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3698,  File  16,142. 


miles  to  the  only  Indian  Office  in  the  Treaty,  at  Battleford,  had  not 
steps  been  taken  to  prevent  the  congregation  of  such  a  desperate  multi¬ 
tude  of  Indians  from  all  over  the  North  West.  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
and  Inspector  Jarvis  were  authorized  to  distribute  provisions  on  the 
Indian  Branch's  account  at  Edmonton  and  Fort  Saskatchewan,  as  well  as  at 
many  other  localities.  By  June  30  of  1879,  3,700  lbs.  of  flour, 

1,038  lbs.  of  pemmican,  and  2,100  lbs.  of  pounded  meat  had  been  dis¬ 
tributed  at  the  two  places  named  alone, 1+5  and  much  more  had  to  be  given 
before  the  year  was  out. 

The  body  of  men  to  whom  the  Canadian  Government  had  entrusted 
Indian  Affairs  in  the  North  West  was  totally  inadequate  to  meet  the 
growing  crisis  in  the  food  supply  of  the  North  West  Indians.  Lieu¬ 
tenant  Governor  David  Laird  at  Battleford  was  Indian  Superintendent  for 
the  North  West  Territories.  He  had  for  his  assistants  two  men: 

M.  G.  Dickieson,  his  young  clerk,  also  at  Battleford,  serving  as  Agent 
for  Treaty  Six,  and  Captain  Allan  McDonald,  at  Shoal  River,  who  was 
Agent  for  Treaty  Four  in  what  was  to  become  Southern  Saskatchewan. 

Laird  realized  that  more  men  were  needed,  and  recommended  that  some  of 
the  North  West  Mounted  Police  Officers,  including  Inspector  Jarvis  at 
Fort  Saskatchewan,  be  given  the  authority  to  act  as  Indian  Agents  in 
addition  to  their  police  duties.40  How7ever,  Minister  of  the  Interior 

45M.  G.  Dickieson  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  July  21, 

1879,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol,  3697,  File  3.5,678. 

46D.  Laird  to  D.  Mills,  January  23,  1878,  P.A.C. 

Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3658,  File  9399  1/2. 


,  Indian 


37 


David  Mills,  who  was  already  concerned  that  $60,000  had  been  over¬ 
expended  by  the  Indian  Branch  in  the  North  West  Territories  in  1877, 
was  not  about  to  allow  any  appointments  which  might  entail  additional 

expense,  and  flatly  rejected  the  proposal,47  even  though  police  offi- 

4  R 

cers  had  for  some  time  been  performing  many  Indian  Branch  duties. 

The  situation  became  a  great  deal  worse  when  Mr.  Laird 

4  Q 

resigned  as  Indian  Superintendent  on  January  1,  1879.  He  was  weary 
of  seeing  his  warnings  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  feed  the  Indians 
or  fight  them,  ignored,50  somewhat  uneasy  about  the  heavy  financial 
responsibilities  of  the  office,51  and  no  doubt  uncomfortable  in  the 
service  of  a  new  Conservative  Ministry.  The  entire  responsibility  for 
the  fulfilment  of  the  terms  of  Treaties  Four,  Six  and  Seven,  fell  upon 
Mr.  Dickieson,52  just  as  it  was  becoming  apparent  that  a  "general 
famine"  such  as  was  anticipated  by  the  terms  of  Treaty  Six,  was 
settling  over  the  North  West. 


47D.  Mills  to  D.  Laird,  March  26,  1878;  and  same  to  same, 

March  28,  1878,  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3658, 

File  9399  1/2. 

48P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3693,  File  14,402 

passim. 

k5D.  Laird  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  January  1,  1879, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  11,305.  Laird's 
resignation  was  accepted  with  no  expression  of  regret. 

50D,  Laird  to  David  Mills,  April  17,  1878,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol. 3654,  File  8904;  and  same  to  same,  April  17,  1378; 
D.  Mills  to  D.  Laird,  May  22,  1878;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3664,  File  9825. 

51D.  Laird  to  the  Minister  of  the  Inferior,  January  I,  1879, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  11,305. 

5^P.A.C„,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  11,305  passim. 


38 


The  first  steps  taken  by  the  government  of  Sir  John  A. 

Macdonald  to  alleviate  this  situation  were  halting  ones.  Two  new 

Indian  Agents  were  appointed  for  Treaty  Six.53  one  of  them,  Molyneux 

St.  John,  a  midnight  appointee  of  the  Mackenzie  government  to  a 

position  in  Manitoba,54  was  redirected  to  take  charge  as  Indian  Agent 

at  Edmonton.55  He  was  ordered  to  proceed  West  with  the  least  possible 

delay,  in  order  to  supervise  the  Indians'  seeding  operations,  but,  in 

July  of  1879  he  sent  in  his  resignation  without  having  ever  left 

Winnipeg. 55  Desperately,  Dickieson  called  upon  Inspector  Jarvis  to 

distribute  seed  to  those  Indians  who  wished  to  farm,  provisions  to 

those  who  were  starving,  and  the  annuity  monies  to  all  who  had  entered 

Treaty  in  the  Edmonton  district. 57  Fortunately,  the  police  officer 
5  8 

agreed,  but  he  proved  unable  to  provide  the  supervision  required  for 


53Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council, 
P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  171, 


February  12,  1879, 
P.C.  231/1879. 


P.A.C. , 


54Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council,  October  8,  1878, 
Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  166,  P.C.  391/1878. 


55L.  Vankoughnet  to  Molyneux  St.  John,  February  21,  1879, 
P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3648,  File  3162-1. 

5%.  St.  John  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  July  8,  1879, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3648,  File  8162-2.  The  other 
Agent  appointed  for  Treaty  6,  Edwin  Allen,  also  refused  to  take  up 
his  post. 


57M.  G.  Dickieson  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  April  18,  1879,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  11,421.  See  also  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3693,  File  14,334  vol.  1,  passim. 

58M.  G.  Dickieson  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  June  13,  1879,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  11,421. 


In  the  autumn,  it  was  reported  that 


the  Indians'  farming  operations. 

"the  seed  had  been  given  [the  Indians]  last  spring  rather  lavishly, 
and  they  had  put  it  in  as  they  received  it,  covering  the  ground,  I  am 
told,  in  some  places  half  an  inch  thick. 

By  the  summer  of  1879,  the  Canadian  Government  had  realized 
the  necessity  for  a  more  comprehensive  programme  of  assistance  to  the 
Indians  of  the  Western  Territories.  Edgar  Dewdney  of  Yale,  British 
Columbia  was  appointed  Indian  Commissioner  for  Manitoba  and  the  North 
West  on  May  30,  1879. 60  His  duties  were  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  the 
Treaties  under  instructions  from  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  to 
represent  the  government  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  management  of 
the  Indians  and  the  amelioration  of  their  condition,  and  to  supervise 
all  officers  of  the  Indian  Branch  in  Treaties  Four,  Six,  and  Seven. 

In  addition,  approximately  thirty  men  were  engaged  as  Farming  Instruct 
ors  to  teach  the  Indians  of  the  North  West  how  to  cultivate  the  soil. 
These  men  were  also  expected  to  raise  crops  that  could  be  used  to  sus- 
tain  the  starving  natives. 

Mr.  J.  J.  McHugh  of  the  County  of  Russell,  Ontario  was 

b9E.  Dewdney  to  Col.  J.  S.  Dennis,  September  5,  1879,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3707,  File  19,500, 

50Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council,  May  30,  1879,  P.A.C 
Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  176,  P.C.  749/1879. 

olSir  John  A.  Macdonald,  memorandum  to  Privy  Council,  May  16, 
1879,  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3686,  File  13,364. 

S^-L.  Vankoughnet,  circular  to  Farm  Instructors,  June  28,  1879, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3648,  File  8162-2. 


40 


appointed  Farm  Instructor  for  the  Indians  near  Edmonton.  Mr.  W.  J. 
O'Donnell  of  the  same  place  was  named  as  his  assistant. 88  The  two 
arrived  at  Edmonton  on  October  4,  1879, 6 4  and  had  soon  established 
themselves  on  the  Riviere  Qui  Barre,  about  twenty  miles  north  west  of 
the  Fort  at  the  forks  of  the  Lac  La  Nonne  and  Lac  Ste.  Anne  trails. 88 
McHugh  was  to  remain  at  Qui  Barre  until  the  spring  of  1881,  when  he 
was  moved  to  Treaty  Seven  in  Southern  Alberta,80  and  eventually  dis¬ 
missed.  Dewdney  declared  he  had  been  conspiring  with  all  the 

c  n 

"sharpers"  in  the  Canadian  West.  O'Donnell,  on  the  other  hand, 
retained  his  position  for  almost  two  decades. 

The  farm  instructors  arrived  at  Edmonton  a  full  month  in 
advance  of  Colonel  James  Greene  Stewart,  the  Agent  who  had  been 
appointed  to  supervise  them. 08  Stewart  had  been  an  officer  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  the  Lake  Winnipeg  district  for  many  years, 
and  in  1879  resided  near  the  city  of  Winnipeg.  He  was  selected  at 

6 3 .^he  Indian  Officers,"  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  22, 
1879,  p.  2  and  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3686,  File  13,191 
passim. 

6 4 "Edmonton — Our  News  Letter,"  Saskatchewan  Herald, 

November  17,  1879,  p.  3. 

85CJntitled  item,  Saskatchewan  Herald,  December  29,  1879,  p.  1. 

6dT.  P.  Wadsworth  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  December  1,  1881, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3574,  File  156. 

67E.  Dewdney  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  July  15,  1883,  P.A.C., 
Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  395,  No.  189650-189652. 


68 


'Edmonton 


Saskatchewan  Herald,  December  1,  1879,  p.  I. 


41 


the  instance  of  Dr.  John  Schultz,  M.P.  for  Manitoba.6^ 

One  of  the  first  problems  which  confronted  the  new  Agent  on 
his  arrival  at  Edmonton  was  the  location  of  the  proposed  Passpasschase 
Reserve.  The  terms  of  Treaty  Six  were  somewhat  indefinite  con¬ 
cerning  the  location  of  Indian  reserves.  It  was  clearly  stated  that 
the  land  to  be  set  aside  for  this  purpose  was  not  to  exceed  one  square 
mile  for  every  five  persons  (128  acres  per  capita) ,  but,  as  for 
location,  it  merely  promised  "That  the  Chief  Superintendent  of  Indian 
Affairs  shall  depute  and  send  a  suitable  person  to  determine  and  set 
apart  the  reserves  for  each  band,  after  consulting  with  the  Indians 
thereof  as  to  the  locality  which  may  be  found  to  be  most  suitable  for 
them. "70 


6 9 John  Schultz,  Joseph  Ryan,  and  J.  Dubuc  to  the  Minister  of 
the  Interior,  Ottawa,  March  27,  1879,  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 
Vol.  3643,  File  8162-1.  Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council, 

July  26,  1379,  P.A.C. ,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  179, 

P.C.  1097/1879. 

7 "Morris,  Treaties ,  pp.  352-353.  Neither  the  Treaty  nor  the 
Indian  Act  provided  any  clear  indication  of  when  and  how  an  Indian 
reserve  could  be  legally  established.  The  surveyors,  who  consulted 
with  the  Indians  and  set  out  the  boundaries  of  the  reserves,  seem  to 
have  received  their  instructions  not  from  the  "Chief  Superintendent 
of  Indian  Affairs"  but  from  the  local  Indian  Affairs  authorities.  The 
reserves  so  surveyed  were  later  confirmed  by  Order  in  Council.  It  is 
my  opinion  that  in  Treaty  6,  the  reserves  became  a  legal  entity  with 
the  approval'  of  the  Order  in  Council,  because  of  the  all-encompassing 
provisions  of  the  Dominion  Lands  Act  and  the  power  delegated  to  the 
Governor  in  Council  therein  to  withdraw  from  its  operation  lands  that 
have  been  or  may  be  reserved  for  Indians.  See  Canada,  The  Indian  Act, 
1876,  39  Vic.,  Cap  18,  Sec.  3vi.  and  Canada,  Statutes  of  Canada,  The 
Dominion  Lands  Act,  1372,  35  Vic.,  Cap  23,  Secs.  17-22  and  105.  For 
another  view  on  this  question,  however,  see  R.  Bartlett,  "The  Estab¬ 
lishment  of  Reserves  in  Saskatchewan, "  unpublished  paper  prepared  for 
the  Federation  of  Saskatchewan  Indians  (1975) ,  and  held  in  the 
Treaty  Rights  Research  office  of  the  Federation  in  Regina,  Saskatch¬ 
ewan  . 


The  Passpasschase  Band  at  first  decided  to  ask  for  their 


reserve  to  be  set  out  about  six  to  ten  miles  up  Whitemud  Creek  (pres¬ 
umably  somewhere  west  of  present-day  Ellerslie) , 71  but  later  recon¬ 
sidered,  and  declared  their  desire  to  have  the  land  immediately  across 
the  North  Saskatchewan  from  Fort  Edmonton.  The  proposal  was  not  met  in 

a  friendly  spirit  by  the  white  and  Metis  settlers  who  had  taken  up 

72 

claims  in  that  vicinity.  Both  Indians  and  settlers  took  their 
respective  cases  to  Colonel  Stewart,  who  appears  to  have  supported  the 
wishes  of  the  Passpasschase  Band.  °  Emboldened  by  their  Agent's  atti¬ 
tude,  the  band  turned  on  the  most  vulnerable  of  the  settlers.  Angus 
McDonald,  a  forty-year  veteran  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  service, 
had  determined  to  take  up  farming  in  the  spring  of  1879.  He  decided 
to  stake  out  a  claim  near  the  Two  Hills, 7tf  which  was  soon  to  be  near 
the  centre  of  the  area  claimed  by  Chief  Passpasschase  and  his  followers. 
In  his  first  season,  McDonald  put  up  a  shanty  for  his  living  quarters, 
and  broke  and  fenced  five  or  ten  acres.  Early  in  the  spring  of  1880, 
the  Indians  warned  him  not  to  attempt  to  make  any  further  improvements. 


1  "Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  December  29, 

"Indians?,”  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  15,  1882,  p.  2. 

/2, 'Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  December  29, 

W.  F.  King,  D.L.S.,  report  to  Lindsay  Russell,  Surveyor 
January  16,  I87S,  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1879, 

(No .  7) ,  pt .  II ,  p.  17 . 

73 "Edmonton, ”  Saskatchewan  Herald,  December  29, 

"Edmonton,"  ibid. ,  April  26,  1880,  p.  1. 

74The  "Two  Hills"  can  still  be  seen,  one  north  and  one  south 
of  51st  Avenue,  at  about  106th  Street.  In  1879,  it  was  still  necessary 
to  stake  out  claims  in  the  Edmonton  district,  because  no  Dominion  Lands 
Surveyors  had  yet  laid  out  any  land  in  the  area.  See  "Edmonton," 
Saskatchewan  Herald,  June  30,  1879,  p.  4  and  "Edmonton,"  ibid. , 

April  26,  1880,  p*  i. 


1879,  p.  1. 


1879,  p.  1. 
General, 

Vol .  XII 


1879,  p.  1; 


43 


7  S 

on  what  they  declared  to  be  their  reserve.  Prudently,  McDonald 
heeded  the  advice  of  the  Indians.  He  continued  to  reside  in  his 
shanty  and  cultivate  this  small  area,  however,  until  his  residence  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  the  summer  of  1884.  The  ex-Hudson’s  Bay  Company 
employee  contended  that  the  Indians  had  committed  arson  to  drive  him 
out,  but  could  produce  no  evidence  to  support  such  a  charge.  He  even- 

7 

tually  accepted  $200  as  compensation  from  the  government.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  warning  given  to  Angus  McDonald  by  the  Passpasschase  Band 
in  1880  was  viewed  as  a  foretaste  of  things  to  come  by  the  less  iso¬ 
lated  settlers  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river.77 

Stewart  had  more  pressing  problems  than  the  location  of  pro¬ 
posed  reserves,  however.  Chief  among  them  was  the  necessity  to  prevent 
the  starvation  of  the  Plains  Indians.  The  Agent  arrived  as  winter  was 
closing  in,  and  the  provisions  on  hand  were  quite  inadequate  to  feed  the 
thousands  of  Crees  and  Stoneys  who  would  not  be  able  to  find  enough  fish 
and  game  to  keep  themselves  alive.  The  Hudson’s  Bay  Company,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  well  supplied  with  foodstuffs  and  quite  willing  to 
sell  them  to  the  government  at  the  high  prices  current  at  such  isolated 

7 5,1  Edmonton,  "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  April  26,  1880,  p.  1. 

7  fi 

W .  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  December  27,  1884? 

Hay ter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs, 

January  15,  -1885;  E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  February  7, 
1885;  W.  McGirr  to  the  Superintendent  General,  March  23,  1885,  all  in 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3705,  File  17,956. 

7 7 "Edmonton , "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  April  26,  1880,  p.  1. 


44 


posts.  Stewart  had  soon  incurred  a  magnificent  debt  on  the  govern¬ 
ment's  behalf.  He  was  later  to  claim,  with  a  great  deal  of  justice, 
that  this  was  unavoidable,  and  there  can  be  no  denying  that  the 
suffering  amongst  the  Plains  Indians  during  the  winter  of  1879-1880 
was  intense.  But  the  newly  installed  Agent  added  to  the  account  small 
items  such  as  raisins,  sugar,  and  chocolate  which  his  superiors  were 
sure  to  regard  as  extravagant.  Furthermore,  the  bands  nearest  Edmonton 
received  an  inordinate  share  of  the  bounty.  The  Passpasschase  Band,  as 
the  closest  group  to  Fort  Edmonton,  was  especially  favoured.  Stewart 
insisted  that  while  it  might  be  true  that  these  Indians  had  received 
more  food  than  any  others,  he  had  made  them  work  for  it.78  Other 
Edmontonians  did  not  see  things  in  the  same  light,  however.  Frank 
Oliver,  the  Edmonton  correspondent  for  the  Saskatchewan  Herald, 
reported  that  Chief  Passpasschase  and  his  brothers, 

.  .  .  previous  to  the  'civilizing'  policy  of  the  Dominion 
Government  and  its  generous  distribution  of  provisions  to 
the  destitute  Indians,  were  able  to  do  a  good  day's  work 
at  anything  where  plenty  of  muscle  was  required.  Since 
that  time,  however,  they  have  found  out  a  trick  worth  two 
cf  going  to  work,  and  a  dollar  and  a-half  and  grub  has 
lost  its  charms  for  them.  .  .  . 

They  had  a  good  time  of  it  last  winter:  nothing  to 
do  but  to  hitch  up  their  horses  and  drive  over  to  the 
Indian  Agent's  store  and  get  their  rations.- 


78por  'the  whole  question  of  the  government's  dismissal  of 
Stewart  for  incompetence  and  extravagance,  see  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3695,  File  14,875.  Also,  "Edmonton,"  Saskatchewan 
Herald,  April  26,  1880,  p.  1;  L.  Vankoughnet  to  Sir  John  A. 

Macdonald,  October  4,  1880:  same  to  same,  October  14,  1880?  in  P.A.C.. 
Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  293,  No..  134064-134065  and  No.  134073-134075 
respectively;  "Edmonton  Agency,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  January  3,  1881, 

p.  2. 

7 8 "Edmonton , "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  27,  1880,  p.  2. 


45 


A  few  months  later,  however,  when  Oliver  saw  that  the  government  could 
also  be  attacked  for  its  persecution  of  Stewart,  his  new  newspaper.  The 
Bulletin,  was  to  assert  that  Colonel  Stewart  had  not  spent  any  more 
public  money  than  had  been  necessary.80 

While  the  large  expenditures  would  certainly  have  jeopardised 
his  future  with  the  Indian  Branch,  it  was  Stewart's  incompetence  in 
financial  affairs  that  sealed  his  fate.  He  seems  to  have  been  per¬ 
petually  confused  as  to  the  amounts  he  had  received  from  the  government, 
and  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  to  be  expended.  What  was  worse, 
he  had  adopted  the  simple  expedient  of  charging  his  personal  bills  to 
the  government  account,  and  carelessly  extending  permission  to  his 
superiors  to  deduct  such  amounts  from  his  salary.  This  might  have 
been  somewhat  more  acceptable  had  not  these  personal  bills  sometimes 
amounted  to  several  hundred  dollars  in  excess  of  his  wages.  Even 
before  Indian  Commissioner  Dewdney  arrived  to  investigate  the  large 
expenditure  for  rations,  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian 
Affairs,  Lawrence  Vankoughnet,  had  decided  to  suspend  the  Agent  for 
these  personal  .irregularities.81  Stewart  was  still  in  office,  however, 
when  Mr.  George  A.  Simpson,  D.L.S.,  arrived  to  survey  the  boundaries 
of  the  Indian  reserves  in  the  district.  The  Surveyor  made  the  laying 
out  of  Passpasschase ' s  Reserve  his  first  order  of  business.  The  Chief 
had  somewhat  moderated  his  earlier  stand,  and  now  asked  for  a  reserve 
two  miles  south  of  the  North  Saskatchewan.  Simpson  convinced  him  and 

80 "Edmonton  Agency,"  Edmonton  Bulletin.  January  3,  1881,  p.  2. 

81See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3695,  File  14,875. 


his  band  to  retreat  a  further  two  miles  from  the  river  bank.  Upon 


being  informed  that  241  persons  had  been  recognized  as  members  of  the 

Q  O 

band  at  the  previous  year's  annuity  payments,  Simpson  calculated  that 
the  Indians  were  entitled  to  a  reserve  of  48  square  miles,  and  promised 

o  q 

Passpasschase  that  area.  The  survey  was  commenced  on  August  2,  1880.  ° 

p  h 

August  2  was  also  the  date  on  which  Inspector  T.  P.  Wadsworth0^ 

elected  to  pay  the  Passpasschase  Band  their  annuity  monies  for  1880. 

The  Saskatchewan  Herald  described  what  happened: 

On  the  2nd  of  August  Mr.  Wadsworth  went  across  the  river  to 
the  Two  Hills,  three  miles  distant,  to  pay  Papastayo ' s  Band, 
but  that  chief  wished  it,  distinctly  understood  that  he  would 
not  take  any  money  that  day — that  he  wanted  something  to  eat, 
and  then  wanted  to  talk.  .  .  .  Well,  he  talked,  and  talked 
big;  he  wanted  a  great  many  things  that  the  agent  could  not 
promise  him.  Next  day  he  was  ready  to  talk  again,  but  the 
agent  wanted  to  pay  them  their  money;  and  on  this  issue  they 
split.  Papastayo  could  not  get  what  he  wanted,  so  he  would 
not  take  any  money.  The  agent  then  recrossed  the  river  to 
pay  the  bands  on  this  side,  while  the  chief  made  many  threats 
as  to  what  he  would  do  that  night.  However,  before  Mr.  Wads¬ 
worth  had  finished  paying  them,  [the  bands  north  of  the  river,] 
Papastayo  hauled  in  his  horns  and  asked  Mr.  Wadsworth  to  con¬ 
sider  what  he  had  said  on  the  previous  occasion  as  nothing  more 
than  the  wind  that  passes  by,  never  to  return  again. 


^Actually  there  had  been  249.  D.I.N.A.  Annuity  Paysheets  for 
1879  -  Passpasschase  Band.  This  population  would  have  entitled  the 
Passpasschase  Band  to  a  reserve  of  49.8  square  miles. 

S3George  A.  Simpson  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian 
Affairs,  December  1,  1880,  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81 
Vol.  XIV  (No.  14),  pp.  107-111. 

8 ^Wadsworth  was  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs'  Inspector  of 
Indian  Farms  and  Agencies  for  the  North  West  Territories.  Appointed 
in  1879,  he  was  generally  at  odds  with  Indian  Commissioner  Dewdney,  and 
later,  Hayter  Reed,  but  was  in  frequent  close  contact  with  Lawrence 
Vankoughnet,  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  who 
was  also  generally  hostile  to  DewTdney. 

q  r 

-''‘Edmonton, Jl  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  13,  1880,  p.3. 


47 


The  Chief's  wind  did  return,  however,  as  soon  as  he  discovered 
the  full  extent  of  Mr.  Wadsworth's  revenge.  When  the  Inspector  re¬ 
crossed  the  North  Saskatchewan,  he  did  not,  in  fact,  commence  to  pay 
other  bands.  Rather  he  began  paying  one  newly  created  band,  henceforth 
to  be  known  as  "Edmonton  Stragglers."  This  new  grouping  included  the 
followers  of  Tommy  La  Potac  and  of  Mahminawatow,  who  were  later  to  form 
Enoch's  Band.  It  also  included  the  Indian  wives  and  children  of  white 
or  Metis  residents  of  Fort  Edmonton.  More  significantly,  the  stragglers 
were  joined  by  eighty-four  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  who  had 
feared  that  their  Chief's  actions  might  deprive  them  of  their  annuities. 
Thus,  in  spite  of  a  large  number  who  had  joined  Passpasschase  since  the 
1879  payments,  his  band's  population  plummetted  from  249  to  188. 86 
Doubtless  with  a  certain  satisfaction,  Mr.  Wadsworth  informed  Surveyor 
Simpson  that,  as  the  Passpasschase  Band's  population  had  declined  a 
great  deal,  no  more  than  forty  square  miles  should  be  allocated  to  it 
as  a  reserve.87  As  for  the  stragglers,  Wadsworth  declared  that  since 
they  were  merely  Indians  who  loitered  about  Edmonton,  they  could  not 
expect  any  land  to  be  set  aside  for  their  benefit.88 

88D. I.N. A.  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1879  -  Passpasschase  Band, 
Annuity  Paysheets  for  1880  -  Edmonton  Stragglers,  and  Annuity  Pay¬ 
sheets  for  1880  -  Passpasschase  Band.  Sixty-six  persons  appear  on  the 
Passpasschase  Band  paysheets  for  1880  who  cannot  be  identified  as  having 
been  with  the  band  at  earlier  payments,  but  49  persons,  who  had  been 
paid  in  1879,  did  not  appear  on  either  the  Passpasschase  or  Edmonton 
Stragglers  paysheets  for  1880.  Of  the  34  former  Passpasschase  persons 
paid  with  the  Edmonton  Stragglers  in  1880,  28  were  orphans  at  the  Roman 
Catholic  Mission  at  St.  Albert.  Evidently  the  band  with  whom  these 
were  paid  was  entirely  at  Wadsworth's  discretion. 

87G.  A.  Simpson  ro  the  Superintendent  General,  December  i,  1880, 
in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81,  Voi.  XIV  (Mo.  14) ,  pp.  108-109. 

88T.  P.  Wadsworth  [to  the  Indian  Commissioner] ,  September  30, 


No  trouble  occurred  until  Mr.  Simpson's  party  began  to  run  the 


south  and  final  boundary  line  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve.  Realizing 
that  he  was  not  receiving  the  forty-eight  square  miles  originally  pro¬ 
mised  him,  the  Chief  ordered  the  surveyors  to  stop.  When  they  did  not, 
he  removed  their  instruments,  and  declared  that  he  would  not  allow  them 
to  continue.89  Mr.  Wadsworth  suspended  Passpasschase  from  his  chief¬ 
tainship,  but  Commissioner  Dewdney  soon  arrived  to  reinstate  him.90 
But  Dewdney  would  not  support  the  band's  claim  to  eight  additional 

square  miles,  and  told  the  Indians  that  their  reserve  would  not  be 

9  1 

completed  that  year,  if  ever.  1 

The  citizens  of  Edmonton  were  delighted.  Frank  Oliver  reported 
that  if  Chief  Passpasschase  could  not  get  what  he  wanted,  he  would  not 
take  anything  at  all. 

Now,  this  just  suits  the  people  around  here,  and  especially 
those  settlers  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  to  whom,  with 
the  reserve  so  close  behind  them,  it  would  have  been  a  hard 
hit.  They  have  now  some  hopes  that  upon  inquiries  being 
made  they  [the  Indians]  will  not  have  it  quite  so  much  their 
own  way  and  might  even  be  sent  to  the  country  they  originally 
came  from. 9 ^ 


1S80,  extract  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81  Vol.  XIV  (No.  14) 
pp.  87-88.  And  D.I.N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1880  and  for  1881  - 
Edmonton  Stragglers. 

89G.  A.  Simpson  to  the  Superintendent  General,  December  1,  1880 
in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81,  Vol.  XIV  (No.  14},  pp.  108-109 
"Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  13,  1880,  p.  3;  "Edmonton 
ibid.,  September  27,  1880,  p.  2. 

""Edmonton, ”  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  27,  1880,  p.  2. 

91G.  A.  Simpson  to  the  Superintendent  General,  December  1,  1880 
in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81,  Vol.  XIV  (No.  14) ,  pp.  108-109 

9 2 "Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  September  27,  1380,  p.  2. 


49 


Surveyor  George  Simpson  quite  agreed  with  this  assessment. 

I  think  they  [Passpasschase ' s  followers]  fear  the  band 
will  dwindle  down  to  so  few  that  it  will  be  broken  up. 

This  would  probably  be  the  best  thing  that  could  happen,  as 
it  is  principally  composed  of  stragglers,  who  are  both  impu¬ 
dent  and  lazy,  and  their  residence  in  a  prosperous  settle¬ 
ment  would  be  detrimental  to  its  advancement.93 

Not  everyone  was  so  sure  that  Mr.  Wadsworth  had  acted  wisely, 
however.  Colonel  Stewart,  recently  deposed  as  Indian  Agent,  declared 
that  it  was  not  fair  to  deprive  the  stragglers  of  lands  as  promised  by 
the  Treaty,  nor  would  it  be  wise  to  create  a  separate  reserve  for  them 
which  would  only  increase  the  anger  of  non-Indians.  He  declared  that 
the  Inspector's  clever  revenge  would  cause  more  trouble  than  had  been 
imagined.91*  Stewart's  successor,  William  Anderson,  also  was  concerned 
that  the  "Stragglers"  would  not  be  allotted  any  reserve  land. 

This  is  manifestly  unjust,  and  will  in  the  near  future 
give  much  trouble,  as  it  is  beginning  to  be  understood. 

I  am  pleased  to  say  that  the  Indians  at  present  have 
reliance  on  the  good  faith  of  the  Government,  and  I  should 
regret  to  see  it  lost.95 

The  question  of  what  rights  to  grant  the  Edmonton  Stragglers  was  not 
finally  settled  until  1885,  when  the  great  majority  of  them  took  Half 
Breed  Scrip  and  forsook  their  Indian  status. 


9 3G.  A.  Simpson  to  the  Superintendent  General,  December  1,  1880, 
in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1880-81,  Vol.  XIV  (No.  14),  p.  109. 

94Jas.  G.  Stewart  to  the  Superintendent  General,  September  7, 
1880,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3695,  File  14,875. 

95W.  Anderson,  report  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian 
Affairs,  December  13,  1881,  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1882, 

Vol.  XV  (No.  6),  p.  85.  ~  . 


Seeing  that  the  Passpasschase  Band  had  sunk  a  good  deal  in  the 
estimation  of  government  officials,  the  people  of  Edmonton  made  several 
attempts  to  have  the  reserve  moved  to  a  distant  location.  The  first 
such  move  occurred  early  in  1881.  At  a  crowded  meeting  of  Edmonton 
and  district  settlers  held  on  January  13,  1881,  at  the  Edmonton  Hotel, 
the  question  of  the  Indian  reserve  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  was 
discussed  at  some  length.  The  consensus  was  that  the  Passpasschase 
Band  should  be  removed  to  a  location  twenty  miles  back  from  the  river 
on  the  west  side  of  Hay  Lakes,  and  a  petition  was  forwarded  to  Prime 
Minister  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  to  that  effect  citing  the  arrogance  of 
Chief  Passpasschase  in  terminating  Simpson's  survey,  the  "alien" 
nature  of  the  Indians  of  the  band,  the  hardship  that  would  be  imposed 
upon  settlers  living  south  of  the  river,  and  the  inadvisability  of 
allowing  a  reserve  so  close  to  a  "great  central  point"  such  as 

q  r  q  y 

Edmonton.  D  Frank  Oliver's  newly  established  Bulletin^  enthusiastic¬ 
ally  promoted  the  cause  of  the  settlers  in  its  news  columns  and  edit¬ 
orials.  On  the  Monday  following  the  meeting  the  newspaper  published 
a  major  editorial  on  the  subject  of  "Indian  Reserves"  which  recapitu¬ 
lated  the  settlers'  case  and  ended  with  a  revealing  exhortation: 

Now  is  the  time  for  the  Government  to  declare  the 
reserve  open  and  show  whether  this  country  is  to  be  run 
in  the  interests  of  the  settlers  or  the  Indians.^® 


96"Mass  Meeting,"  Bulletin,  January  17,  1881,  p.  1; 

?.  H.  Belcher  and  John  A.  McDougall  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  n.d. , 
[January  13,  1881]  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3737, 

File  27596. 

q  n 

The  first  issue  was  published  on  December  6,  1880. 

"N 

"Indian  Reserves,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  January  17,  1881,  p.  2. 


98 


51 


The  Federal  Government,  however,  was  not  moved  by  this  agi¬ 
tation.  After  consulting  with  Commissioner  Dewdney,  Lawrence  Vankough- 
net,  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  replied  to 
the  petitioners  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  force  the  Passpasschase 
Indians  to  take  their  reserve  elsewhere  without  breaking  faith  with 
them.  The  most  he  could  promise  the  Edmontonians  was  that  the  surveyor 
would  take  care,  when  completing  the  reserve,  to  lay  it  out  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  interfere  as  little  as  possible  with  the  settlers'  claims 
and  timber  lands." 

This  was  not  quite  the  end  of  the  matter.  The  Bulletin,  with 
the  support  of  many  local  settlers,  continued  to  campaign  fitfully 
against  the  Indian  reserve.  On  some  occasions  it  attempted  to  be 
reasonable : 

The  Indians’  side  of  the  story  is  that  at  Ft.  Pitt,  where 
the  bargain  was  made  with  these  Indians,  Lieut.  Governor 
Morris  promised  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  choose  their 
reserves  where  they  pleased,  so  long  as  they  were  not  on 
land  previously  settled,  and  that  a  certain  amount  of  land 
should  be  allowed  for  each  family.  They  accordingly  chose 
this  place  and  they  refused  to  allow  the  surveyor  to  finish 
his  work  because  they  understood  that  he  was  not  giving  them 
the  amount  to  which  the  treaty  entitled  them.  This  is  all 
true  enough  and  they  are  of  course  legally  entitled  to  the 
land.  But,  in  making  this  bargain  with  them  Governor  Morris, 
who  had  never  seen  and  had  no  idea  of  the  country,  made  a 
great  mistake,  as  every  one  must  acknowledge,  and  the  sooner 
the  mistake  is  rectified  the  better.  These  people  if 
approached  in  a  proper  manner  and  at  a  proper  time  could  be 
induced  for  a  very  reasonable  consideration  to  take  the 
reserve  elsewhere.  .  .  . 100 


"l.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  March  19,  1881;  E.  T.  Gait  to 
the  Superintendent  General,  May  11,  1881;  L.  Vankoughnet  to  P.  H. 
Belcher  and  John  A.  McDougall,  May  27,  1881;  all  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Voi.  3737,  File  27596. 

10  0"That  Reserve,'5  Edmonton  Bulletin,  September  30,  1882,  p,  2. 


■f! 


52 


At  other  times,  it  was  insulting  and  indignant: 

.  .  .  when  a  treaty  was  made  with  any  band  of  Indians  in 
the  Saskatchewan  many  of  the  lower  class  of  half-breeds 
in  the  vicinity,  for  the  sake  of  the  treaty  money,  caused 
themselves  to  be  enrolled  as  Indians,  .  .  .  These  people, 
although  they  may  live  with  the  Indians  and  take  the  treaty 
money,  and,  although  they  are  not  whites,  have  not  the  same 
nature  as  the  true  Indian,  and  join  the  bands  not  because 
they  do  not  know  and  cannot  do  any  better,  but  because  they 
think  they  can  live  easier  in  that  way  than  by  working 
honestly  for  their  livings  as  they  had  always  been  obliged 
to  do  before.  To  give  these  men  treaty  money  is  simply 
putting  a  premium  on  laziness.  They  have,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  grasping  nature  of  a  white  man  coupled  with  the  indolence 
of  the  Indian,  and  these  two  qualities  combined  generally 
produce,  if  not  a  thief  at  least  a  dishonest  man.  To  allow 
such  men  to  join  the  bands  gives  them  a  chance  to  exercise 
an  influence  over  the  real  Indians  which  must  of  necessity 
be  anything  but  good.  Instead  of  their  superior  intelli¬ 
gence  being  used  to  instruct  and  improve  the  Indians — *to 
make  them  more  industrious  and  independent — it  is  used  to 
make  them  more  dependent  on  the  Government  and  more  generally 
useless.  These  men  are  the  lawyers  of  the  bands  and  put, 
the  rest  up  to  new  dodges  by  which  to  get  greater  concessions 
from  the  Government.  They  joined  the  bands  to  get  out  of 
working  and  seem  determined  that  neither  they  nor  any  of 
the  others  shall  work  if  they  can  help  it.  It  is  uphill  work 
to  instruct,  improve  and  civilize  pure  Indians,  who  have 
neither  education  nor  religion,  but  it  is  far  harder  to  deal 
with  men  who  have  both  to  a  limited  extent,  but  do  not  wish 
to  exercise  either. 

Of  this  class,  principally,  are  the  Edmonton  [Passpass- 
chase]  and  Lac  Ste.  Anne  [Michel]  bands  of  alleged  Crees. 

Most  members  of  the  Edmonton  band  speak  English  and  French 
as  well  as  Cree  and  previous  to  the  treaty  considered  them¬ 
selves  half-breeds  and  worked  for  their  living  like  other 
people,  but  when  the  treaty  was  made  and  they  saw  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  getting  a  nice  grant  of  valuable  land  and  an  annuity 
of  $5  apiece,  they  took  the  chance  and  since  then  have  been 
a  nuisance  to  both  the  Government  officials  and  settlers  in 
the  neighborhood.  .  .  .  Besides  all  this  they  have  drawn 
Government  rations  on  all  occasions  when  they  could  get  them. 

The  Lac  Ste.  Anne  band,  also  mostly  half-breeds,  before 
the  treaty  were  doing  pretty  well,  cultivating  considerable 
patches  of  land  near  the  lake  and  working  when  they  could 
get  an  opportunity,  but  since  then  they  have  quit  farming 
and  working  and  gone  into  the  business  of  starving  and 
dunning  the  Government  for  grub,  occasionally  making  threats 
of  violence,  one  of  which  they  carried  out  lately  by  shooting 
the  farm  instructor's  cow. 

It  is  high  time  this  sort  of  work  was  put  an  end  to.  It 


53 


is  foolish  to  try  to  civilize  a  man  who  makes  himself  a 
savage  in  order  to  receive  the  benefit  of  this  attempt  at 
civilization.  The  fact  of  his  doing  so  is  proof  positive 
that  his  intelligence  is  quite  up  to  the  standard,  but 
that  his  moral  nature  is  too  far  down  to  ever  be  reached 
by  any  argument  short  of  main  force .  Let  these  people 
understand  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  being 
Indians  and  they  will  soon  cease  to  claim  to  be  such. 

Instead  of  allowing  them  all  they  ask,  so  that  they  will 
not  stir  up  ill  feeling  among  the  real  Indians,  as  has 
been  the  practice  heretofore ,  a  sharp  distinction  should 
be  drawn  between  those  who  don't  know  how  to  work  and 
can't  and  those  who  do  know  how  but  won't  and  when  they 
proceed  to  violence,  as  in  this  cow-shooting  case,  they 
should  be  made  to  feel,  to  its  full  extent,  the  heavy 
hand  of  the  law,  and  when  their  wishes  are  contrary  to 
the  public  benefit,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Edmonton 
reserve,  there  is  no  reason  why  their  rights  as  Indians 
— -which  they  are  not — should  not  be  overridden  by  the 
rights  of  other  half-breeds  or  whites.101 

The  Bulletin ' s  words  were  not  without  effect.  Shortly  after 
the  last-quoted  editorial  appeared,  threats  to  squat  on  the  "supposed 
Indian  reserve"  were  freely  indulged  in  by  settlers  on  the  South  Bank 
of  the  North  Saskatchewan.102  In  January  of  1883,  a  second  petition 
against  the  reserve  was  entrusted  to  Rev.  Father  Leduc,  to  carry  to 
the  authorities  in  Ottawa.  This  time,  the  representation  was 
completely  ignored.103 

In  response  to  this  agitation,  and  similar  instances  across  the 
North  West,  the  Commissioner  of  the  North  West  Mounted  Police  found  it 
advisable,  in  July  of  1883,  to  issue  a  general  order  calling  upon  the 


1 01 "Indians? , "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  15 ,  1882 ,  p.  2  . 

102 "South  Side,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  22,  1882,  p.  2. 

103See  "Public  Meeting,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  January  27,  1883, 
p.  3  and  "Public  Meeting, "  ibid . ,  July  28,  1883,  p.  4. 


54 


members  of  his  force  to  render  every  possible  assistance  to  the  offi¬ 
cials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs,  whenever  the  latter  might 
require  aid  in  preventing  squatting  by  non- Indians  upon  reserves.104 
This  did  not  put  an  end  to  all  threats  of  trespass,  however.  Later 
that  year  the  members  of  Passpasschase ' s  Band  began  to  complain  that 
the  Crown  Timber  Agent  for  Edmonton  was  issuing  permits  to  local  sett¬ 
lers  allowing  them  to  cut  timber  on  the  Indian  reserve.105  The  Timber 
Agent  eventually  relented,  but  only  after  a  lengthy  appeal  to  the 
Deputy  Minister  of  the  Interior,  reciting  all  of  the  familiar  arguments 
against  the  reserve,  and  a  great  deal  of  misinformation  besides.106 

While  there  was  nothing  in  the  stand  maintained  by  the  offi¬ 
cials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  which  encouraged  the  Edmon¬ 
tonians,107  there  were  other  straws  in  the  wind  which  did  provide  some 


104Fred  White,  Comptroller  of  the  N.W.M.P.,  to  Lt.Col.  Irvine, 
N.W.M.P.,  July  4,  1883,  P.A.C.,  Records  of  the  North  West  Mounted 
Police  (R.G.  18),  Vol.  1007,  File  362. 

105William  Anderson  to  Thomas  Anderson,  November  27,  1883, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3728,  File  25,705. 

106Thomas  Anderson  to  the  Deputy  Minister  of  Dominion  Lands 
[sic] ,  December  6,  1883; Thomas  Anderson  to  William  Anderson,  March  11, 
1884;both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3728,  File  25,705. 
Thomas  Anderson  claimed  that  almost  all  of  Passpasschase ' s  people  had 
"returned"  to  their  places  on  other  reserves;  that  orphans  from  the 
mission  were  included  in  the  population;  and  that  only  six  families 
remained  on  the  reserve  site.  All  of  this  was  false. 

107See,  for  example,  E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General, 
April  28,  1884,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3728,  File 
25,705. 


55 


grounds  for  hope  that  the  Indian  reserve  might  be  removed  to  a  more 

distant  location.  In  the  summer  of  1882,  the  land  composing  the 

reserve  was  subdivided  into  quarter  sections.  This  was  not  done  when 

i  n  r 

Dominion  Land  surveyors  encountered  other  Indian  reserves.  In 

addition,  there  appeared  to  be  a  faction  within  the  band  that  was 
willing,  or  even  eager,  to  move.  Chief  Passpasschase ' s  notorious 
brother  Tahkoots,  was  apparently  intriguing  to  split  up  the  band  and 
take  a  fresh  reserve.  Commissioner  Dewdney  investigated,  only  to 

discover  that  while  many  of  Passpasschase ' s  followers  were  eager  to 


108"South  Side  Reserve,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  2,  1884, 
p . . 2 ;  John  C.  Nelson  to  the  Superintendent  General,  October  20,  1890, 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1891,  Vol.  XXIV  (No.  18),  pt.  1,  pp.  146- 
148;  Thomas  Anderson  to  the  Deputy  Minister  of  the  Interior, 

December  6,  1883,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3728,  File 
25,705.  This  subdivision  survey  could  be  the  source  of  a  good  many 
legal  complications.  Under  the  terms  of  the  Dominion  Lands  Act  in 
force  in  1882,  certain  portions  of  any  subdivided  townships  auto¬ 
matically  became  reserved  as  school  lands  upon  the  completion  of  the 
survey.  Other  lands  became  vested  in  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  as  soon 
as  an  official  notice  of  the  completion  of  survey  was  forwarded  to  the 
Land  Commissioner  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  In  the  case  of  the 
Passpasschase  Reserve,  official  notices  were  sent,  and  the  Company 
later  exchanged  their  quarter  sections  for  land  elsewhere.  See  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vols.  3837  and  3838,  File  68,970  passim.  The 
survey  of  the  Indian  reserve  was  not  completed  until  1884.  The  land 
was  not  confirmed  as  an  Indian  reserve  by  Order  in  Council  until  May 
1889,  six  months  after  the  Indians  surrendered  it,  and  the  land  was 
not  "withdrawn  from  the  operation  of  the  Dominion  Lands  Act,"  by 
Order  in  Council,  until  1893,  four  years  after  the  surrender  process 
had  been  completed.  Canada,  Privy  Council,  Orders  in  Council,  May  17, 
1889  and  June  12,  1893,  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1, 

Vol.  419,  P.C.  1151/1889,  and  Vol.  560,  P.C.  164/1893  respectively. 

i09Robert  Sinclair  to  E.  Dewdney,  August  7,  1834,  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vcl.  4491  (Letterbook) ,  p.  645.  The  file 
containing  this  letter  has  been  lost. 


obtain  a  new  reserve  in  the  Beaver  Hills,  there  was  no  willingness 
whatsoever  to  surrender  a  portion  of  their  land  at  the  Two  Hills  in 
return. 110 

The  only  effect  of  the  series  of  trespasses  instigated  by  the 
Crown  Timber  Agent,  and  the  intrigues  of  Headman  Tahkoots  seems  to  have 
been  the  long  delayed  completion  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  survey 
John  C.  Nelson,  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs'  Chief  Surveyor  for 
the  North  West,  completed  the  south  boundary  in  August  of  1884.  The 
band  had  to  be  satisfied  with  forty  square  miles,  rather  than  the 
forty-eight  it  had  been  promised  four  years  earlier.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Department  did  not  keep  its  promise  to  the  Edmonton  settlers 
that  the  reserve  boundaries  would  be  altered  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
minimize  the  hay  and  timber  lands  received  by  the  Indians.  Nelson 
merely  completed  Simpson's  lines.  By  all  accounts,  the  Passpass¬ 

chase  Reserve  contained  some  of  the  finest  land  in  the  district,  well 
supplied  with  timber  and  hay.  It  was  traversed  by  the  Calgary  and  Hay 
Lake  Trails,  and  any  railroad  approaching  Edmonton  from  the  south 
would,  of  necessity,  be  constructed  through  it . 1 ^ 

'10Edgar  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  November  10, 
1884,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3700,  File  16,692  vol.  1. 

'tllL.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  May  21,  1884,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records Vol .  3728,  File  25,705. 

112 

John  C.  Nelson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  December  31, 

1884,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol..  3703,  File  17,723. 

1 1 3 Ibid. ;  "Indian  Reserves,"  The  Bulletin,  January  17,  1881, 
p.  2;  "Indian  Reserves,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  8,  1882,  p„  2. 


57 


The  completion  of  the  survey  appeared  to  smother  the  agitation 
by  Edmonton  settlers  against  the  Indian  reserve,  but  there  was  not  an 
end  to  the  difficulties  with  the  people  for  whom  the  land  was  intended. 
The  most  serious  issue  for  the  Indians  and  the  government,  and  the  one 
most  productive  of  disputes,  was  the  vexing  question  of  food. 

Treaty  Six  had  reached  an  apex  of  obscure  and  equivocal  lang¬ 
uage  in  its  guarantee 

.  .  .  that  in  the  event  hereafter  of  the  Indians  comprised 
within  this  treaty  being  overtaken  by  any  pestilence,  or 
by  a  general  famine,  the  Queen,  on  being  satisfied  and 
certified  thereof  by  her  Indian  Agent  or  Agents,  will  grant 
to  the  Indians  assistance  -  of  such  character  and  to  such 
extent  as  her  Chief  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  shall 
deem  necessary  and  sufficient  to  relieve  the  Indians  from 
the  calamity  that  shall  have  befallen  them.114 

The  Edmonton  Bulletin,  never  considered  the  Indian's  staunchest 

defender,  clearly  perceived  the  core  of  the  difficulty  posed  by  this 

clause : 

The  literal  reading  of  this  is  that  the  commissioner  need 
not  give  an  ounce  of  provisions  in  any  case  if  he  does  not 
feel  so  disposed,  while  the  Indians  take  it  to  mean  that 
whenever  they  are  in  want  their  wants  shall  be  relieved. 

The  Indians  consider  that  whatever  provisions  they  receive 
under  this  clause  they  receive  as  a  treaty  right,  while 
the  agents  consider  that  it  is  given  as  a  favor  and  there 
are  no  obligations  to  give  any  at  all,  hence  the  continual 
demands  and  refusals  and  general  clashing.  If  the  clause 
only  means  what  the  agents  consider  it  does,  it  means 
simply  nothing,  and  there  was  no  reason  for  its  insertion 
unless  as  a  blind,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  interpre¬ 
tation  put  upon  it  by  the  Indians  is  only  reasonable  .  .  . 

It  was  only  natural  that  when  they  were  in  a  position  to 
make  their  own  terras  they  should  stipulate  that  the  govern¬ 
ment  through  which  they  might  be  deprived  of  one  means  of 
subsistence  should  supply  them  with  another.115 


114Morris,  Treaties ,  p.  354. 

x 15" The  Indians,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  4,  1383,  p.  2. 


58 


While  the  Passpasschase  Indians  were  largely  House  People,  and 
originally  Woods  Cree,  they  had  hunted  buffalo  for  years  with  the  St. 
Albert  Metis,  and  had  been  joined  by  many  Plains  Indians .  1 1 8  Thus, 
though  the  disappearance  of  the  buffalo  did  not  have  such  a  devastating 
effect  on  this  band  as  on  others,  it  too  suffered  some  hardships  as  a 
result.  Furthermore,  Chief  Passpasschase  seems  to  have  often  acted  in 
concert  with  Plains  Cree  chiefs  whose  people  had  been  all  but  totally 
dependent  upon  the  buffalo  for  survival. 

That  animal  was  not  to  be  found  in  any  numbers  north  of  the 
Cypress  Hills,  after  1879. 117  A  general  famine,  such  as  had  not  pre¬ 
viously  been  seen,  descended  upon  the  prairies.  Colonel  Stewart  had 
been  severely  reprimanded  for  his  extravagance  in  attempting  to  meet 
this  crisis.  His  successor,  William  Anderson,  was  determined  to  avoid 
any  such  criticism.  Even  Frank  Oliver's  newspaper,  quick  as  it  was  to 
to  point  out  Indians  who  had  gone  into  the  "business  of  starving,"  was 
bitter  in  its  condemnation  of  the  hard-hearted  Indian  Agent,118  The 
same  general  meeting  which  called  for  the  removal  of  the  Passpasschase 


118William  A.  Fraser,  "Plains  Cree,  Assiniboine  and  Saulteaux 
(Plains)  Bands  1874-84,"  (1963)  -  unpublished  paper  in  the  possession 
of  the  Glenbow- Alberta  Institute,  Calgary. 

1 1 / "Edmonton, "  Saskatchewan  Herald,  July  28,  1879,  p.  3. 
Exhaustive  and  exhausting  detail  on  the  history  of  the  North  American 
bison  can  be  found  in  Frank  Gilbert  Roe,  The  North  American  Buffalo: 

A  Critical  Study  of  the  Species  in  its  Wild  State,  (Toronto:  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Toronto  Press,  1951) . 

118There  are  many  examples,  but  see  especially,  "The  Indian 
Scare,"  and  "Latest  From  Hay  Lakes,"  The  Bulletin,  January  10,  1881, 
pp.  2  and  1  respectively?  "Local,"  ibid.,  January  24,  1881,  p,  3; 
"Local,"  ibid. ,  January  31,  1881,  pp.  3  and  4;  and  "The  Indians," 
Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  4,  1883,  p.  2. 


59 


Reserve  in  January  of  1881,  also  caused  a  telegram  to  be  sent  to  Ottawa 
drawing  attention  to  the  misery  and  wretchedness  of  the  Indians  about 
Edmonton  and  petitioning  for  an  enquiry  into  the  management  of  Indian 
Affairs  in  the  district.  The  Bulletin  reported: 

Settlers  in  the  out- lying  districts  are  becoming  alarmed 
for  the  safety  of  their  families  and  stock — for  they  know 
that  no  one  can  blame  the  Indians  if  they  resort  to  force  to 

obtain  food.  The  same  number  of  white  men  if  placed  in  their 

119 

position  would  have  had  it  long  ago. 

It  is  difficult  to  know  whether  this  petition  and  others  like  it  had 
any  effect.  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  officials,  caught  between  the 
very  real  needs  of  the  Indians  and  the  political  necessity  of  main¬ 
taining  government  expenditures  in  the  North  West  at  a  level  that  would 
be  tolerated  by  Central  Canada,  y  anxious  that  temporary  emergency 
relief  not  evolve  into  a  permanent  welfare  system, 121  and  hindered  by 
the  primitive  transportation  and  communication  systems  of  the  North 
West,  were  easy  prey  for  critics  on  all  sides.  On  one  occasion  com¬ 
plaints  were  made  to  Commissioner  Dewdney  that  settlers  were  compelled 
to  feed  and  clothe  starving  Indians.  He  replied: 

The  fact  of  the  Indians  being  fed  and  clothed  by  white 
settlers  is  a  reason  why  many  Indians  desire  to  leave 
their  reserves.  So  long  as  settlers  feed  Indians  off 
the  reserves,  just  so  long  must  they  expect  them  to 
loiter  around  the  settlement.  Work  is  always  to  be 
found  on  the  reserves. 122 


H^Mass  Meeting,"  The  Bulletin,  January  17,  1881,  p.  I. 

^ 20 Canada ,  Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Session  1882, 
26  April,  1882,  p.  1186. 

121Ibid. ,  Session  1880,  3  May,  1880,  p.  1942. 

122,,Local, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  November  3,  1883,  p.  1. 


60 


To  which  the  Edmonton  Bulletin  dryly  retorted: 

The  only  fault  to  be  found  with  this  way  of  putting  the 
case  is  that  although  work  may  be  always  found  on  the 
reserves  food  is  not,  and  it  is  food,  not  work,  that 
keeps  an  Indian  alive.  An  Indian  is  such  a  strange 

TOO 

creature. 10 

While  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  relations  between  the  Edmonton 
Indians  and  their  Agent  improved  greatly  after  the  severe  winter  of 
1880-1881,  it  was  not  until  1883  that  tensions  reached  their  highest 
point.  Midway  through  another  difficult  winter.  Chiefs  Passpasschase, 
Bobtail,  Samson,  and  Ermineskin,  together  with  others  from  Tommy  La 
Potac's  (Enoch's)  and  Ironhead's  (Paul's)  Bands,  approached  Rev.  Father 
Scollen  to  write  a  letter  for  them  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 

Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  which  was  to  be  published  in  the  Edmonton 
Bulletin.  Scollen  was  a  defiant,  and  often  insulting  man  who  seemed  to 
enjoy  being  the  centre  of  controversy.1*14  The  epistle  was  somewhat  too 
florid  to  appear  authentic,  but  the  sentiments  expressed  were  genuine 
enough.  The  Indians  expressed  their  fear  that  the  government  was 
attempting  to  exterminate  them  slowly  by  starvation,  and  reminded  those 
in  authority  that  they  would  rather  die  quickly  by  violence  than  slowly 
from  lack  of  food.  They  drew  attention  to  the  much  better-fed  Black- 
feet  Indians  to  the  south  of  them,  who  were  always  well-armed  and  ready 
to  threaten  violence  if  not  properly  treated,  and  intimated  that  the 

123ibid. 

124See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  10,986- 


61 


12  5 

Crees  would  soon  follow  this  example. 

On  the  basis  of  this  letter,  and  other  reports  that  Father 
Scollen  was  stirring  up  the  Indians,  Agent  Anderson  took  his  complaints 
to  the  North  West  Mounted  Police.  Captain  Gagnon,  in  charge  of  the 
detachment  at  Fort  Saskatchewan,  expressed  a  willingness  to  arrest  the 
priest  at  once,  but  after  some  deliberation  it  was  concluded  that  an 
appeal  should  first  be  made  to  Bishop  Grandin.  Scollen,  for  his  part, 
heatedly  denied  all  insinuations  that  he  had  incited  the  Indians,  insis¬ 
ted  that  he  had  considerably  understated  the  violent  statements  of  the 
Indians  who  had  dictated  the  letter,  and  claimed  that  he  had  only  agreed 
to  write  it  for  them  when  they  threatened  to  loot  the  government  stores 
if  he  refused.126 

If  any  proof  were  needed  that  the  Indians  did  not  require  white 
agitators  to  make  serious  complaints  concerning  the  quantity  of  food 
they  were  receiving,  it  was  provided  within  a  very  few  months.  In  July 
of  1883,  the  Indians  from  near  Bear's  Hills  (now  Hobbema),  unable  to 
support  themselves  by  hunting,  and  finding  their  farm  instructor, 

Samuel  Lucas,  without  any  provisions  to  sustain  them,  determined  to 
pay  Indian  Agent  Anderson  a  visit  at  Edmonton.  En  route  they  v/ere 
joined  by  Chief  Passpasschase  and  several  members  of  his  band,  who  were 
in  a  similar  condition.  A  deputation  of  four  Indians  was  then  selected 

“2oChief  Bobtail,  Chief  Samson,  Chief  Ermineskin,  Chief  Wood¬ 
pecker,  Maminonatan  [should  be  Mahminawataw] ,  Agowastin,  Siwiyaviges , 
Ironhead,  William,  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  January  7,  1883; 
in  Sdmontor.  Bulletin,  February  3,  1883,  p.  3.  Copy  also  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vcl.  3673,  File  10,986. 

126P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  10,986. 


62 


to  confront  the  Indian  Agent  and  demand  food  for  the  bands.  Anderson 
coolly  replied  that  he  had  no  provisions  (which  was  true) ;  that  even  if 
he  had  some  he  would  not  give  them  any;  that  they  knew  better  than  to 
expect  to  be  fed  away  from  their  reserves;  and  that  they  should  return 
home  where  the  farm  instructor  would  supply  their  wants.  Knowing  full 

well  that  there  was  no  food  for  them  on  their  reserves,  the  whole  body 

of  Indians  next  confronted  the  Agent.  Anderson  repeated  his  earlier 
position.  A  great  commotion  ensued.  The  infuriated  Indians  wrenched 
William  Anderson  out  of  his  chair,  and  replaced  him  with  the  unwilling 
Samuel  Lucas,  in  order  to  signify  their  desire  for  a  change  of  Agents. 
The  farm  instructor  tried  to  explain  that  their  hands  were  tied  by 
higher  officials,  but  the  Indians  had  turned  again  on  Anderson,  demand¬ 
ing  food.  The  Agent  insisted  he  had  none,  but  his  visitors  declared 

that  there  was.  plenty  of  food  at  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company’s  store,  and 

demanded  that  Anderson  purchase  some  on  his  own  credit.  Anderson 
refused  and  the  threats  grew  more  ugly.  Finally  an  Indian  by  the  name 
of  Grasshopper  grabbed  the  Agent  by  the  arm  and  forcibly  dragged  him 
from  the  Agency  building  into  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company’s  fort.  There 
an  arrangement  was  eventually  made  to  have  the  company  advance  a  certain 
amount  of  provisions  to  the  Indians  on  the  security  of  the  coming 
autumn ' s  annuity  payments . 1 2  7 

The  next  day,  Anderson  sent  a  frantic  message  to  Captain  Gagnon 
at  Fort  Saskatchewan  asking  him  to  hasten  to  Edmonton  with  all  his  men. 

'  "Indians, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  2S,  1883,  p.  4  and  "The 
, "  ibid. ,  August  4,  1883,  p.  2. 


Indians 


63 


He  declared  that  "the  Indians  took  forcible  steps  to  coerce  me  in  my 
duty  as  Indian  Agent  and  were  utterly  beyond  control."  He  also  opined 
that  "it  will  probably  be  necessary  to  swear  in  forty  or  fifty  men  and 

I  O  O 

shew  the  Indians  that  they  are  not  the  masters  of  the  situation." 

Gagnon  rushed  into  Edmonton  with  his  entire  contingent  of  eight, 
only  to  find  that  the  Indians  had  departed  and  were  camped  across  the 
river.  The  police  officer  summoned  them  back,  and  they  returned  to  a 
meeting  the  following  morning,  "in  full  war  paint  and  equipment 2 8 
After  an  introductory  dance  involving  a  great  deal  of  gun  firing  and 
shouting,  the  debate  began.  Passpasschase  acted  as  spokesman  for  the 
Indians,  giving  his  version  of  the  events  of  two  days  previous  and 
demanding  that  Anderson  be  replaced.  He  was  followed  by  many  others 
who  reiterated  what  he  had  said.  The  Agent  for  his  part  insisted  that 
he  had  not  wished  to  imply  that  he  would  not  feed  the  Indians,  but 
merely  that  he  would  not  feed  them  away  from  their  reserves.  Eventually 
Captain  Gagnon  called  a  halt  to  the  long  discussion.  He  treated  the 
Indians  to  another  issue  of  provisions  from  Police  stores  before  sending 
them  away,  and  advised  them  that  they  had  gone  about  attempting  to 
change  their  Agent  in  the  wrong  manner.  He  declared  that  they  should 
have  made  their  complaints  known  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  and  trusted 
him  to  set  matters  right. 

128W.  Anderson  to  Capt.  Gagnon,  July  25,  1883,  P.A.C.,  North 
West  Mounted  Police  Records,  Vol.  1008,  File  447. 

i28Capt.  Gagnon  to  the  Commissioner,  N.W.M.P.,  August  1,  1883, 
P.A.C.,  North  West  Mounted  Police  Records,  Vol.  1G08,  File  447. 

x  8 8 Ibid, ,  and  "Indians,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  4,  1883, 


p.  2. 


6 


The  Indians  left  for  their  reserves  apparently  satisfied,  but 
several  threw  out  hints  that  they  would  not  be  so  compromising  in  the 
future,  and  a  rumour  soon  reached  Gagnon  that  he  had  better  not  inter¬ 
fere  on  the  next  occasion  on  which  the  Indians  confronted  their  Agent, 
unless  he  wished  to  fight  them  in  earnest.131  The  citizens  of  Edmonton 
had  been  very  frightened,  and  the  Bulletin  no  doubt  reflected  their 
beliefs  when  it  declared: 

Had  it  not  been  a  case  in  which  one  party  was  scared  and 
the  other  daren't  the  circus  would  have  opened  right 
there.  In  future  a  very  little  more  desperation  on  the 
one  hand  or  confidence  on  the  other  and  Canada  will  have 
a  first-class  Indian  war  upon  her  hands.132 

Edgar  Dewdney  publicly  blamed  the  incident  on  white  agitators,133  and 
privately  declared  that  the  Edmontonians  were  greatly  exaggerating  the 
possibility  of  an  Indian  outbreak  in  order  to  stimulate  a  great  expend¬ 
iture  of  public  money  in  the  town.134  In  spite  of  such  sentiments  the 
Edmonton  ruckus  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  such  confrontations  invol¬ 
ving  food,  (including  the  much  more  serious  Crooked  Lakes  incident  in 
January  and  February  of  1884,  and  the  confrontation  on  Poundmaker's 
Reserve  in  the  summer  of  that  same  year) ,  which  eventually  forced  the 
government  to  provide  more  liberal  issues  of  rations  to  hungry  bands.135 

1 3 1 Ibid . 

132 "The  Indians,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  4,  1883,  p.  2. 

133E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs, 
October  2,  1383,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1884,  Vol.  XVII  (No.  4), 
pt.  1,  p.  101. 

lo4E.  Dewdney  to  John  Pope,  October  10,  1883,  P.A.C.,  Macdonald 
Papers ,  Vol.  211,  No.  89941. 

i  °  s 

For  more  information  on  the  Crooked  Lakes  incident,  see 


In  the  wake  of  this  incident,  relations  between  the  Department 
of  Indian  Affairs  officials  and  the  Passpasschase  Band  did  begin  to 
improve .  The  more  friendly  attitudes  were  formed  at  an  important  time, 
for,  to  the  east  of  Edmonton,  events  were  building  towards  the  North 
West  Rebellion.  Tahkoots ,  in  particular,  came  to  enjoy  close  relations 
with  the  officials  of  the  Edmonton  Indian  Agency. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  unrest  in  the  North  West  in  1884.  On 
the  South  Branch  of  the  Saskatchewan,  near  Batoche,  the  Metis  were  agi¬ 
tating  for  a  second  issue  of  half-breed  scrip  and  other  concessions. 

As  for  the  Indians,  there,  were  numerous  signs  that  some  new  movement 
was  at  work,  but  no  white  man  knew  either  its  objectives  or  the  means 
that  might  be  in  contemplation  for  their  achievement.  In  the  Treaty 
Four  area  of  what  is  now  Southern  Saskatchewan,  Chief  Piapot,  still  not 
finally  settled  upon  a  reserve,  unsuccessfully  attempted  to  hold  a 
grand  council  of  Indians  to  discuss  promises  which  had  allegedly  been 
omitted  from  the  text  of  their  Treaty. Further  north,  in  the  Treaty 
Six  district,  Chief  Big  Bear  at  Fort  Pitt,  also  not  yet  settled  at  a 
specific  location,  had  successfully  resisted  an  attempt  to  starve  his 
band  into  choosing  a  reserve  site,i3/  and  was  working  in  concert  with 


Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  "A  History  of  the  Cowessess  Band:  1874-1911,"  unpub¬ 
lished  paper  prepared  for  the  Federation  of  Saskatchewan  Indians, 

Treaty  Rights  Research  Division,  (1975),  pp.  26-33.  A  copy  of  this 
paper  is  held  by  the  Federation  in  its  Treaty  Rights  Research  office  in 
Regina,  Saskatchewan,  Information  on  the  confrontation  on  Poundmaker's 
Reserve  can  be  found  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol .  3576,  File 
30 9 A  and  309B .  See  also,  "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  May  3,  1884,  p.  1 
re  more  liberal  rations . 

13oTyier,  "a  History  of  the  Cowessess  Band,"  pp.  33-34. 

137P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Voi,  3576,  File 
309B  and  "Local,’’  Edmonton  Bulletin,  January  19,  .1384,  p,  1 


309A  and 


66 


Chief  Little  Pine  of  Battle ford  and  others  to  prepare  some  sort  of  con¬ 
frontation  with  government  officials  that  would  alter  the  prevailing 
Indian  policy.13®  While  government  officials  attempted  to  keep  in¬ 
formed  through  a  variety  of  sources,  one  very  interesting  clue  as  to 
the  extent  and  intentions  of  this  movement  came  through  Headman  Tah- 
koots  of  Passpasschase ' s  Band. 

On  June  5,  1884,  the  Pound,  a  member  of  Passpasschase ' s 
Band,139  commenced  to  hold  a  thirst  dance  on  his  reserve,  in  thanks¬ 
giving  for  the  recovery  from  serious  illness  of  his  eldest  daughter,  or 
so  the  Bulletin  reported. 140  The  ceremony  appears  to  have  been  one  of 
the  most  popular  events  of  the  season,  for  Indians  travelled  from  the 
vicinity  of  Egg  Lake  (now  Whitford  Lake,  near  Andrew,  Alberta) ,  Saddle 
Lake,  Bear's  Hills,  and  even  more  distant  points  to  attend.  While  the 
dance  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  celebration,  Chief  Passpasschase  did 
not  appear  to  enjoy  himself  greatly.  In  fact,  he  displayed  consider¬ 
able  nervousness.  He  was  too  quick  to  assure  the  Indian  Agent  that  the 
band  was  not  squandering  its  rations  in  dancing,  rather  than  working, 
and  even  asserted  that  the  members  of  his  band  were  not  participating 
in  the  ceremony,  but  merely  allowing  it  to  be  held  on  their  reserve. 
(This  was  clearly  not  the  case,  as  the  dance  had  been  called  by  a 

13®See  John  L.  Tobias,  "Interim  Report  on  the  Little  Pine/ 

Lucky  Man  Band,"  unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Federation  of 
Saskatchewan  Indians,  Treaty  Rights  Research  Division,  (1374) .  A  copy 
of  this  paper  is  held  by  the  Federation  in  its  Treaty  Rights  Research 
office  in  Regina,  Saskatchewan.  Also  W.  B.  Fraser,  "Big  Bear,  Indian 
Patriot,"  in  Donald  Swainson  (ed.) ,  Historical  Essays  on  the  Prairie 
Provinces ,  The  Carleton  Library,  (Toronto/Montreal:  1970),  pp.  71-88. 

1 3 9D. I .N .A. ,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1884  -  Passpasschase  Band. 

i2+0"The  Thirst  Dance,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  14,  1884,  p.  3. 


67 


member  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  and  Tahkoots  had  been  featured  as 
one  of  two  dancers  around  the  centre  pole  just  hours  before.1 1+1 )  The 
Chief  also  wished  it  noticed  that  he  had  maintained  perfect  order,  and 
promised  that  no  appeals  for  provisions  would  be  made  to  the  Agent  on 
account  of  the  dance. 11+2 

The  cause  of  the  nervousness  was  no  doubt  the  presence  of  a 
group  of  thirteen  young  men  from  Big  Bear's  Band  led  by  one  Papastis . 

As  soon  as  the  speeches  by  the  Chiefs  had  concluded,  this  group 
commenced  what  the  Bulletin  declared  to  be  a  "war  dance."  The  news¬ 
paper  described  the  visitors  as: 

.  .  .  clad  for  the  most  part  in  nature's  vestments, 
fantastically  ornamented  with  paint  and  feathers, 

[they]  marched  to  the  tent  to  the  music  of  drums, 
sleigh  bells,  and  firearms.  They  formed  a  circle, 
around  the  pole  and  began  a  war  dance,  which  resembles 
the  famed  Red  river  jig,  except  for  the  noise.  A  more 
perfect  representation  of  pandemonium  cannot  be  ima¬ 
gined;  the  leader  going  around  shooting  off  his  rifle 
and  the  rest  dropping  down  one  by  one  at  each  shot, 
representing  the  men  he  had  killed  in  battle.  Each  of 
the  twelve  apostles  told  of  his  valiant  deeds,  amid 
loud  cries  of  approval  from  the  onlookers.1*43 

The  dance  was  not  unusual,  but  there  was  an  uneasy  feeling 
about  that  Papastis  and  his  companions  had  not  travelled  so  far  merely 
to  celebrate  the  recovery  of  the  Pound's  daughter,  nor  to  entertain  the 
gathered  crowds.  The  first  indication  as  to  the  real  object  of  the 


141 Ibid.  In  the  dance  around  the  centre  pole,  folds  of  skin  on 
the  dancer's  chest  were  pierced  with  wooden  awls,  and  strips  of  hide 
were  attached  to  these  and  then  fastened  to  the  top  of  a  pole .  The 
celebrant  then  danced  around  the  pole,  leaning  back  at  intervals  until 
he  had  pulled  himself  loose. 

i42ibid. 

1 4  3  Ibid . 


visit  came  through  the  Indian  Agency  clerk,  Mr.  John  A.  Mitchell. 
After  a  conversation  with  Tahkoots  on  the  second  day  of  the  dance, 
Mitchell  reported  that  Big  Bear  wished  to  have  a  number  of  Indians  go 
up  to  Ottawa  and  settle  their  grievances  there.  Tahkoots  had  also 
heard  that  Big  Bear  was  working  in  concert  with  Piapot  and  a  certain 
unnamed  Assiniboine  chief . * 44 

On  June  9,  the  day  after  the  dance  had  terminated,  Tahkoots 

sent  William  Anderson  a  very  curious  and  somewhat  garbled  letter.  No 

doubt  transcribed  by  a  semi-literate  interpreter,  it  indicated  that 

Papastis  had  brought  a  message  that  asked  for  more  than  companionship 

on  a  journey  to  Ottawa.  Tahkoots'  letter  to  the  Agent,  apparently 

containing  the  reply  to  Big  Bear  at  its  end,  is  reproduced  below. 

Sir  I  wish  to  tell  you  some  thing  about  us  Crees.  Big 
Bear  sent  me  tobacco  to  give  my  consent  to  join  him  in 
war  path  and  all  the  tribes  out  in  the  prairies.  It  is 
out  on  Sweet  grass  hills  thair  [they]  are  to  meet,  it  is 
the  Couteney's  [customary  way]  first  starting  sending 
tobacco  to  different  Bands  we  all  believe  thaire  is 
going  to  be  a  Indian  War  with  the  Whites.  I  Takoot  got 
Tobacco  from  Mr.  Carey's  store  to  day  to  send  back  to 
Big  Bear  by  Papasschase  who  is  going  down  to  B  Toord 
[Battleford]  to  tell  him  I  can't  see  in  the  thing  to 
give  my  consent  Because  the  Whiteman  allways  treats  us 
well  &  kind  &  never  murdered  us  since  we  made  Peace 
with  them  I  will  not  Consent.  I  send  my  best  wishes  to 
you  all  down  thare  Big  Bear  thing  [think]  on  your  Child¬ 
ren  &  you  peopul  &  you  Piepot  the  same  smoke  this  tobacco 
&  stop  this  excitement.  I  am  Takoot s  your  Friend  I  neve 
[never]  seen  you  yet  &  you  seeam  to  know  me,  J 


l44W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  June  6,  1884,  P.A.C 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3687,  File  13,772. 

- 1+5  [Tahkoots  to  W.  Anderson],  June  9,  1884,  P.A.C. ,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3576,  File  309B  and  Vol.  3745,  File  29,506  pt.  1 
The  first  reference  is  to  the  apparent  original  letter  received  by 
Anderson  which  he  forwarded  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  The  second 
reference  is  to  the  copy  of  the  letter  forwarded  to  Ottawa  by  Dewdney. 
The  quotation  above  is  from  the  first  reference,  while  the  words  in 


69 


Two  weeks  later,  Anderson  forwarded  this  communication  on  to 
his  superiors  with  the  addendum  that  it  confirmed  other  reports  to  the 
same  purport.146  The  Department  replied  that  Tahkoots  was  to  be 
specially  commended  for  his  conduct  in  the  matter.147  This  was  no 
doubt  done,  but  if  Tahkoots  received  any  further  information  concerning 
Big  Bear's  activities,  he  did  not  again  communicate  it  to  the  govern¬ 
ment. 

Whether  Big  Bear  planned  armed  confrontation  or  peaceful  pro¬ 
test,  the  outbreak  of  rebellion  in  March  of  1885  caught  Big  Bear,  and 

I  h  O 

the  Indians  of  the  North  West  by  surprise."  News  of  Riel's  victory 
at. Duck  Lake  was  carried  across  the  Prairies  by  Metis  runners,  hoping 
to  enlist  the  Indians  to  their  cause.  According  to  the  Bulletin,  Pass- 
passchase's  Band  had  been  informed  of  the  news  before  the  first  tele¬ 
gram  on  the  subject  had  arrived.  Tahkoots,  again,  had  informed  the 
Agent.  Apart  from  Riel's  runners,  the  Indians  had  other,  less 


square  brackets  are  Dewdney's  rendering  of  the  original.  The  hand¬ 
writing  is  difficult  to  decipher,  and  the  Commissioner's  version  of 
the  letter  is  no  doubt  very  nearly  correct,  but  it  is  possible  to 
wonder  whether  "Couteney's"  might  not  have  referred  to  the  Kootenay 
Indians,  rather  than  a  garbled  version  of  "customary  way." 

1 4 ® W .  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  June  23,  1884, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3576,  File  309B. 

I^r.  Sinclair  to  E.  Dewdney,  August  4,  1884,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3576,  File  3C9A. 

14 8 Fraser,  "Big  Bear,  Indian  Patriot;"  W.  B.  Cameron,  On  the 
War  Trail  of  Big  Bear,  (London;  1926) . 

11+9  "Local, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  4,  1885.  p.  1.  See  also 
J.  M.  Rae,  telegram  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  March  22,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affaiirs  Records,  Vol.  3584,  File  1130-1A.  This  telegram  from 
the  Indian  Agent  at  Battleford,  states  that  Riel  had  sent  runners  to 
Battleford,  Big  Bear's  Camp  at  Frog  Lake,  and  Edmonton,  declaring  that 


reliable,  means  of  keeping  informed  of  events.  On  April  18,  1885,  the 


Edmonton  Bulletin  reported: 

Tah-koots,  of  the  Two  Hills  band,  has  been  making  medicine 
and  prophesys  that  five  hundred  soldiers  will  be  here  on 
Tuesday  next.  He  forgot  to  state  whether  they  were  to  be 
whites  or  Indians.  15^ 

While  the  Indians  might  have  been  restless  during  the  course 
of  the  outbreak  to  the  east,  many  whites  in  Edmonton  were  in  a  state 
approaching  panic.  One  rumour  flew  to  the  effect  that  the  St.  Albert 
half-breeds  were  holding  secret  meetings ,* 5 *  another  said  that  the  St. 
Albert  Metis  wished  to  enroll  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  government, 
but  had  been  dissuaded  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy.152  It  was  dec¬ 
lared  by  some  that  the  Hudson's  Bay  post  at  Lac  Ste.  Anne  had  been 
looted,  and  by  others  that  the  establishment  had  had  an  exceptional  and 
peaceful  trade  with  the  Indians.153  Imminent  attacks  on  Fort  Edmonton 
were  continually  predicted. 1 5i+ 


the  Metis  had  commenced  war,  even  before  the  engagement  at  Duck  Lake. 

15 ^Untitled  item,  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  18,  1885,  p.  2. 

151 James  McDougall,  George  A.  Simpson  and  H.  Griesbach,  tele¬ 
gram  to  E.  Dewdney,  March  21,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 

Vol .  3585,  File  1130-12. 

152W.  Anderson  to  E.  Dewdney,  April  15,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 

I  C  ^ 

Ibid.  There  are  two  letters  of  the  same  date  from  Anderson 
to  Dewdney  in  this  file.  The  first  reports  the  looting;  the  second 
denies  it. 


154W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  April  9,  1885, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12  and  "Local," 
Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  25,  1885,  p.  1. 


Indian  Agent  William  Anderson  was  among  those  most  frightened 
by  the  swirl  of  events.  While  other  Agents,  whose  Indians  were  no  less 
restless  than  the  Edmonton  Bands,  were  constantly  travelling  from 
reserve  to  reserve,  dispelling  rumours,  conferring  with  the  different 
chiefs,  and  pacifying  the  young  men  of  their  bands,155  Anderson  re¬ 
moved  all  his  supplies  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  storehouse,  locked 
up  the  Agency  office,  and  huddled  with  his  "necessary"  books  and  papers 
inside  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  fort.156  He  did  provide  the  Passpass- 
chase  and  Enoch's  Bands  with  two  yoke  of  work  oxen  apiece  in  order  to 
keep  them  occupied,  0  and  even  managed  to  win  the  praise  of  the  Bull¬ 
etin,  on  one  occasion,  for  his  refusal  to  provide  food  and  transport¬ 
ation  for  a  delegation  of  Enoch's  and  Alexander's  Indians  who  had  come 
to  the  fort  to  see  him.156  But  his  principal  contributions  to  the 
pacification  of  the  district  were  to  make  continuous  pleas  to  Dewdney 
for  more  arms,  more  ammunition,  more  food  for  the  beseiged  whites,  and 

155For  example,  it  seems  quite  clear  that  the  strenuous  efforts 
of  Agent  Allan  McDonald  in  Southern  Saskatchewan,  and  special  agent 
C.  E.  Denny  among  the  Blackfeet  were  instrumental  in  obtaining  import¬ 
ant  pledges  of  loyalty  from  the  Indians  at  critical  times.  See  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3584,  File  1130- 3A  and  Vol.  3585,  Files 
1130-3B  and  1130-15. 

*56 w .  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  April  15,  1885; 

W.  Anderson  to  E.  Dewdney,  April  15,  1885;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 

157Ibid. 

158"Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  25,  1885,  p.  1. 


icq 

a  strong  force  of  men  to  protect  them.  When  all  danger  had  passed, 

Anderson  next  became  fearful  that  the  government  would  treat  the  rebels 
too  leniently.  He  declared  that  if  this  were  done  there  would  be  no 
safety  in  future  for  any  Indian  Agent  or  farm  instructor.  "Nothing 
can  be  done  unless  terror  is  struck  into  them."  He  further  declared 
that : 

In  fact,  I  can  see  by  their  behavior  at  the  present  time, 
that  the  Indians  who  have  not  joined  the  late  depredations 
have  a  saucy  independent  manner  with  them,  and  appear  to 
think  they  have  been  fools  for  not  joining  in  the  murders 
and  plunder  and  be  better  off,  and  think  they  would  not 
have  been  justly  punished  for  their  misdeeds  as  they  have 
an  idea  the  whites  are  afraid  to  punish  them.  DU 

The  Agent  also  allowed  that  he  had  a  little  list  of  those  Indians  who 
had  done  "much  mischief  in  this  District"  so  that  they  might  be  suit¬ 
ably  punished,  even  though  the  amount  of  damage  done  in  the  Edmonton 
Agency  was  almost  negligible 


159See  W.  Anderson's  letters  to  the  Indian  Commissioner  dated 
April  19,  April  15,  April  15,  May  18,  and  May  20,  1885,  all  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 

160W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  June  3,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 

1 °  *Ibid.  For  example,  the  damage  allegedly  done  on  the  Pass- 
passchase  Reserve  amounted  to  $18.23.  This  amount  consisted  entirely 
of  lost  farm  implements  and  carpenter's  tools — such  small  items  could 
very  easily  have  been  lost  at  any  time  during  the  winter  or  spring, 
and  it  is  questionable  if  even  these  small  losses  could  in  any  way 
have  been  attributed  to  the  rebellion.  See  J.  Ansdell  Macrae,  "Memo 
of  loss  of  property  (received  from  the  Indian  Department)  During  the 
rebellion  of  1885.  Passpasschase ' s  Band  ..."  December  1,  1885, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol,  3720,  File  22,897. 


Commissioner  Dewdney  did  not  treat  the  alarmist  reports  of 
Agent  Anderson  very  seriously. *$2  Peace  had  been  maintained  in  the 
Agency,  although  Anderson  had  done  little  or  nothing  to  help  keep  it. 
When  the  troubles  were  over,  the  Commissioner  was  more  anxious  to 
reward  the  loyal  Indians  of  the  district  than  to  punish  any  who  might 
have  done  minor  mischief. *63  in  this  regard,  the  man  most  frequently 
praised  for  maintaining  peace  among  his  band  was  Chief  Passpasschase . 
While  a  few  members,  led  by  Tahkoots,  were  described  as  idle  and  rest¬ 
less,1^4  and  ready  to  go  to  where  the  fighting  was  raging,1^  the 
Chief  was  credited  with  keeping  the  greater  part  of  his  band  steadily 
at  work.166  In  the  end  he  received  a  reward  of  two  yoke  of  oxen  for 
his  loyalty,  and  was  the  only  Indian  in  the  Edmonton  Agency  to  be  so 


162E.  Dewdney  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  May  1,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  212,  No.  90226?  L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney, 
July  9,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 

icq 

E.  Dewdney  to  Agent,  Edmonton,  August  5,  1385,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 


16i+W.  Anderson  to  E.  Dewdney,  May  20,  1885  and  W.  Anderson  to 
the  Indian  Commissioner,  October  7,  1885,  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12. 


165, 'Local, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  18,  1885,  p.  1. 


166W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  October  7,  1885  and 
S.  B.  Lucas  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  April  15,  1885,  both  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-12.  Hay ter  Reed  to  the 
Superintendent  General,  January  25,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3710,  File  19,550-4.  W.  Anderson  to  the  Superintendent 
General,  August  26,  1885,  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1886,  Vol. 

XIX  (No.  4),  pp.  70-72.  ' "  ' 


honoured. 


Even  the  Edmonton  Bulletin  was  pleased. 


167 


168 


Passpasschase ' s  behaviour  in  keeping  his  band  steadily  at  work 
was  all  the  more  remarkable  in  that  the  government  had  never  been 
satisfied  with  its  previous  efforts  in  this  direction.  In  1880  the 
band  had  bestirred  itself  to  plant  twenty-four  acres  of  crops  and  in 
1881  band  members  had  increased  their  exertions  to  the  point  where  they 

had  sown  thirty-two  acres.165  But  this  progress  was  not  continued. 

i  7  n 

The  area  planted  declined  in  1882,  and  no  progress  was  reported 
thereafter  until  the  Rebellion.  Indian  Reserve  Inspector  T.  P.  Wads¬ 
worth  was  especially  critical  of  the  band's  attitude: 

Being  mostly  half-breeds  and  very  indolent,  they  will  not 
work  more  than  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  and  not  at 
all  if  fed  by  the  Government.171 

Commissioner  Dewdney  agreed,  and  declared  that  the  bulk  of  the  band 
was  "a  worthless  loto"172 


167Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs, 
January  25,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3710,  File 
19,550-4. 

168»«Local, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  26,  1886,  p.  1. 

169E.  Dewdney,  "Farming  Agencies  and  Indian  Reservations,"  n.d. , 
[January  1,  1882] ,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1882,  Vol.  XV  (No.  6) f 
pp.  44-53. 

170Canada,  D.I.A.,  "Farming  Agencies  and  Indian  Reservations," 
(1882) ,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1883,  Vol.  XVI  (No.  5) ,  pp.  264- 
275. 

171t.  p,  Wadsworth  report  no  the  Superintendent  General, 

December  9,  1882,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1883,  Vol.  XVI  (No.  5) 

p.  181. 

j-72E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  November  10,  .1884, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3700,  File  16,692  vol.  1. 


While  only  a  few  of  the  band  attempted  to  farm,173  a  good  many 
attempted  to  support  themselves  by  hunting  near  Hay  Lakes  and  the 
Beaver  Hills.174  Indeed,  Inspector  Wadsworth  acknowledged  that 
"excepting  at  the  time  of  the  annuity  payments  the  band  is  hard  to 

find."173  Others  occasionally  worked  for  settlers,176  or  for  the 

177 

Department  of  Indian  Affairs.  A  few  survived  as  beggars  or  prosti- 

1  7  o 

tutes  around  Fort  Edmonton. 

These  modes  of  living  were  not  likely  to  gain  approval  from 
officials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs,  but  if  the  government 
expected  the  band  to  farm,  it  had  a  few  shortcomings  of  its  own  to 
answer  for.  As  late  as  1884,  the  Indians  of  the  Edmonton  Agency  had 


1 73 Ibid.  T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  the  Superintendent  General, 

October  25,  1884,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1885,  Vol.  XVIII  (No.  3) , 
pp.  145-146. 

174 "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  November  4,  1882,  p.  1. 

175t.  P.  Wadsworth  to  the  Superintendent  General,  October  9, 
1383,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1884,  Vol.  XVII  (No.  4) ,  p.  126. 

17SE.  Dewdney,  "Number  of  Indians  in  the  North-West  Terri¬ 
tories,  and  their  whereabouts  on  the  31st  December,  1882,"  December  15, 
1882,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1883,  Vol.  XVI  (No.  5),  pp,  201-203. 

177L.  Vankoughnet  and  Robert  Sinclair,  "Return  C.5  -  Indians 
of  Manitoba  and  the  North-West  Subsidiary  Statement  L,"  June  30,  1882, 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1883,  Vol.  XVI  (No.  5),  pt.  II,  p .  167. 

178"south  Side  Reserve,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  2,  1884, 
p.  2  and  T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  Edgar  Dewdney,  February  1,  1884,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3640,  File  7452  vol.  3. 


not  received  their  full  complement  of  farm  implements  according  to  the 
terms  of  Treaty  Six.  179  Chief  Passpasschase  and  his  followers  drew 
attention  to  this  breach  of  faith  on  a  couple  of  occasions,  before 
measures  were  taken  to  set  things  right.  180  Nor  had  the  band  received 
the  services  of  a  farm  instructor.  While  no  promise  had  been  made  in 
the  treaty  on  that  score,  such  instruction  was  usual  for  most  bands 
which  had  settled  on  their  reserves.  Technically,  Passpasschase ' s 
Indians  were  placed  under  the  guidance  first  of  S.  B.  Lucas  at  Peace 
Hills181  and  later  of  W.  J.  O'Donnell  of  Riviere  Qui  Barre,182  but  both 
were  far  off,  and  neither  seem  to  have  paid  any  attention  to  the  band. 
Mr.  J.  Shields,  a  former  North  West  Mounted  Policeman,  was  appointed 
farm  instructor  shortly  after  the  rebellion,  but  he  was  not  of  much 
assistance.  Inspector  Wadsworth  reported  that  the  Indians  knew  how  to 
farm  as  well  as  their  Instructor  did,  and  suspected  that  Shield's  pri¬ 
mary  function  had  been  to  issue  rations  on  a  much  more  regular  basis 
than  the  government  would  approve  of.183  The  Instructor  resigned  in 


179Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  to  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  Governor 
General,  January  1,  1884,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1884,  Vol.  XVII 
(No.  4) ,  p.  xi. 

1883obtail  et  al.  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  January  7, 
1883,  Edmonton  Bulletin,  February  3,  1883,  p.  3,  and  "The  Indians," 
Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  4,  1883,  p.  2,  and  untitled  item,  Edmonton 
Bulletin,  March  15,  1884,  p.  1. 

181See  E.  Dewdney,  "Farming  Agencies  and  Indian  Reservations," 
(January  1,  1882) ,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1882,  Vol.  XV  (No,  6) , 
pp.  44-53. 

1 8 2E .  Dewdney,  "Statement  shewing  the  names  and  number  of 
labourers  employed  on  Indian  Farms  in  the  N.W.T.  .  .  . "  n.d.  [May, 
1882],  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3598,  File  1387, 

183T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  October  26,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3717,  File  22,550-2. 


77 


July  of  1886. 184 

In  spite  of  Wadsworth's  disparagement,  considerable  agricult¬ 
ural  progress  was  made  by  Chief  Passpasschase  and  his  followers  in  1885. 
Sixty-eight  acres  were  planted*88  and  a  good  crop  harvested.188  While 
this  figure  was  well  below  the  acreages  cultivated  by  the  smaller 
Alexander's,  Enoch's,  and  Michel's  Bands,  it  was  still  more  than  double 
the  area  of  any  previous  year.  There  was  to  be  no  opportunity  to  see 
if  such  progress  would  continue,  however.  Before  the  crops  could  be 
harvested  the  following  year,  the  Passpasschase  Band  would  be  near  dis¬ 
integration  as  the  result  of  a  grant  from  the  Government  of  Canada 
which  all  but  a  handful  were  eager  to  accept — the  issuance  of  North- 
West  Half-Breed  Scrip„ 


1 84 "Local , "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  17,  1886,  p.  1. 

185T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  October  26,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3717,  File  22,550-2. 

188Better  than  20  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre.  See  "Farming 
Agencies  and  Indian  Reservations,"  (1885),  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for 
1886,  Vol.  XIX  (No.  4),  pp.  204-205  and  212-213. 


CHAPTER  III 


DISINTEGRATION 


The  tribal  system,  which  the  treaty  has 
greatly  strengthened,  is  the  curse  of 
the  Indian  and  the  great  bar  to  his 
civilization.  The  present  desire  of  the 
Indians  as  well  as  half-breeds  to  leave 
the  treaty  is  an  opportunity  to  let  the 
system  fall  to  pieces  of  its  own  accord 
without  cost  or  trouble  to  the  country, 
and  nothing  can  be  more  injudicious  than 
to  throw  any  obstacles  in  the  way. 

— Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886. 


78 


The  grant  of  Half-Breed  Scrip  arose  out  of  the  complex  question 
of  Metis  claims.  The  problem  had  first  arisen  in  Manitoba,  where 
persons  of  mixed  white  and  Indian  blood,  who  were  not  recognized  as 
Indians,  or  did  not  wish  to  be  so  recognized,  demanded  some  compensa¬ 
tion  for  the  extinguishment  of  their  aboriginal  claims  to  the  land  in 
the  province.  The  Metis,  like  the  others  in  the  Red  River  Settlement, 
were  entitled  to  retain  the  river  lots  they  occupied.  In  addition, 
1,400,000  acres  were  set  apart  as  Half-Breed  Reserves,  and,  in  1871, 
the  Half-Breed  Land  and  Scrip  Commission  began  to  grant  240  acres  to 
every  child  of  a  Metis  head  of  family.  In  1874,  it  was  decided  to 
bestow  an  additional  160  acres  on  the  Metis  heads  of  family.  The 
Commission  would  give  the  Metis  applicant  a  certificate  which  entitled 
him  to  his  allotment  of  land  within  the  Half-Breed  Reserve,  and  this 
certificate  was  known  as  "land  scrip."  The  1,400,000  acres  were  not 
sufficient  for  the  Manitoba  Metis,  and  so  the  government  began  to 
issue  "money  scrips"  for  $240  and  $160.  These  scrips  were  not  actually 
cash,  but  rather  another  type  of  certificate  which  entitled  their 
holders  to  the  stated  amounts  towards  the  purchase  of  any  unoccupied 
Crown  lands  in  the  province . - 

The  programme  had  not  worked  well  in  Manitoba.  Instead,  of 
providing  a  secure  economic  base  for  the  next  generation  of  Manitoba 
Metis,'  it  actually  worked  to  increase  that  generation’s  insecurity. 

The  heads  of  families  usually  sold  their  scrips  at  a  discount  to  specu- 

1 Marcel  Giraua,  Le  Metis  Canadian . _ Son  role  dans  I'histoire 

des  provinces  de  1*  Quest,  (Paris:  Institut  d  'Ethnologie ,  .1945)  pp. 
1116-1124,  1212-1218.  Morris  Zaslow,  The  Opening  of  the  Canadian 
North ,  187 0 -19 14 .  (Toronto:  McClelland  and  Stewart,  1971) ,  pp.  20-21. 


80 


lators  and  settlers.  Before  long,  the  proceeds  had  been  squandered  and 

the  original  scrip  claimant  and  his  children  were  left  with  nothing. 

Many  of  these  people  then  moved  west  to  the  valley  of  the  South  Saskat- 

o 

chewan,  where  agitation  for  a  second  scrip  issue  was  soon  commenced. 

The  Dominion  Government  resisted  this  demand  for  some  time,  but  finally 
in  March  of  1885,  as  the  menace  of  open  rebellion  grew,  it  capitulated.2  3 

There  were  to  be  a  number  of  differences  between  the  Manitoba 
and  North  West  scrip  programmes.  In  the  Territories  no  attempt  was  made 
to  establish  Half-Breed  Reserves,  and  land  scrip  could  be  located  on  any 
unoccupied  sections  open  for  homestead  entry.  The  grant  would  be  avail¬ 
able  in  either  the  "land"  or  "money"  variety,  at  the  rate  of  240  acres 
or  $240  for  each  child  of  a  Metis  head  of  family  born  before  July  15, 
1870,  and  160  acres  or  $160  to  each  Metis  head  of  family,  as  in  Manitoba, 
but,  as  the  price  of  Dominion  Lands  had'  recently  been  doubled  to  $2  per 
acre,14  a  decided  disadvantage  would  accrue  to  those  choosing  the  "money" 
type.  On  the  other  hand,  "land  scrip"  had  to  be  applied  to  a  specifi¬ 
cally  located  tract  of  land,  and  was  not  readily  transferable. ^ 

2 Ibid.  Also  see  George  F,  G.  Stanley,  The  Birth  of  Western 
Canada:  A  History  of  the  Riel  Rebellions.  (Toronto:  University  of 

Toronto  Press,  1961)  pp.  178-182. 

3A.  M.  Burgess  to  E.  Dewdney,  March  30,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3584,  File  1130. 

14 "Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  6,  1885,  p.  2. 

3The  regulations  for  the  North  West  Half-Breed  Scrip  Issue  were 
embodied  in  a  number  of  Orders  in  Council.  See  Canada,  Privy  Council, 
Orders  in  Council,  March  30,  1885;  April  18,  1885;  July  2,  1885; 

April  13,  1886;  all  in  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1;  Vol. 

306,  P.C.  688/1885;  Vol.  307,  P.C.  821/1885;  Vol.  312,  P.C.  1202/1885; 
and  Vol.  334,  P.C.  657/1886,  respectively. 


Another  factor  which  was  apparently  of  minor  importance  in  the 
Manitoba  scrip  issue,  but  which  was  to  be  very  significant  in  the 
North  West,  was  the  question  of  Treaty  Indians  who  were  of  mixed  white 
and  Indian  parentage  being  permitted  to  accept  scrip.* * * * * * 7 8  It  was  true 
that  a  number  of  Metis  had  expressed  their  desire  to  leave  the  Treaty 
as  early  as  1881, 7  and  a  few  had  actually  repaid  the  annuities  they 
had  previously  collected  in  order  to  be  free  from  the  Indian  Depart¬ 
ment's  control.8  But  it  is  not  clear  whether  the  government  contem¬ 
plated  that  such  withdrawals  would  be  encouraged.  Instructions  were 
issued  calling  on  Indian  Agents  to  assist  the  scrip  commissioners, 
and  to  identify  any  Indian  who  made  a  claim  to  participate  in  the 

q 

grant,  but  the  purpose  of  such  identification  was  not  made  clear. 

The  Agent's  primary  concern  seems  to  have  been  to  ensure  that  the 
Treaty  Metis  would  not  succeed  in  collecting  annuities  again,  after 


°It  was  not  until  1880  that  Metis  were  given  the  right  to 
withdraw  from  Treaty  under  the  terms  of  the  Indian  Act .  By  that  date, 

the  scrip  grant  in  Manitoba  was  almost  a  decade  old.  A  few  members  of 

the  St.  Peter’s  Band  did  repay  a  portion  of  their  annuities  and  accept 

scrip  in  the  1870's,  although  there  was  no  legal  authority  for  them  to 
do  so.  Deputy  Superintendent  General  Lawrence  Vankoughnet  was  lauer 

to  argue  that  such  withdrawals  were  null  and  void.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian 

Jiff  airs  Records,  Vol.  3619,  File  4646-5. 

7 [Indian  Agent,  Edmonton,  to  the  Indian  Commissioner]  n . d . , 

[May,  1881]  and  W.  Anderson,  report  to  the  Superintendent  General, 
December  13,  1831;  both  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1882,  Vol. 

XV  (No.  6) ,  pp.  xx-xxii  and  83-86  respectively. 

8W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  July  13,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3753,  File  31,665. 

8A.  M.  Burgess  to  E.  Dewdney,  March  30,  1885;  L.  Vankoughent  to 
E.  Dewdney,  March  31,  1885;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol. 
3584,  File  1130.  The  policy  may  be  more  clearly  set  out  in  the  initial 
instructions  to  the  scrip  commissioners  which  I  have  not  found. 


having  received  scrip,  and  so  offered  no  opposition  to  their  departure 
from  the  Treaty. ^  A  pattern  was  soon  established  under  which  the 
Treaty  applicant  for  scrip  would  be  granted  a  written  discharge  from 
Treaty  by  his  Agent  which  would  indicate  the  sum  of  the  annuities 
which  the  applicant  had  received  since  the  date  of  the  Treaty  on  its 
face.  Such  amount  was  then  deducted  from  the  amount  of  scrip  granted 
to  the  applicant.  Without  such  a  discharge,  scrip  would  not  be  granted 
to  anyone  who  had  been  in  receipt  of  annuities  for  Indians.11 

The  Half-Breed  Scrip  Commission  reached  Edmonton  on  June  3, 

1885,  accompanied  by  a  small  group  of  well-heeled  speculators  from 
Calgary  and  Winnipeg.12  Flush  times  followed  them.  About  fifty  scrips 
were  issued  per  day,  many  to  the  heirs  of  victims  of  the  great  small¬ 
pox  epidemic  of  1870,  and  these  were  quickly  purchased  by  the  specula¬ 
tors,  who  thus'added  about  $5,000  to  $7,000  daily  to  the  money  in  cir¬ 
culation  in  the  district.13  The  speculators  preferred  the  money 
scrip,  which  was  more  readily  transferable,  and  could  be  applied  to 
land  in  Manitoba  or  other,  more  settled,  regions  of  the  North  West,  and 
were  reported  to  have  been  disgusted  when  some  of  the  St.  Albert  Metis 

1 ^Magnus  Begg  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  May  25,  1885,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3585,  File  1130-15 . 

^Examples  of  these  discharges  from  Treaty  can  be  found  in 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3587,  File  1239-1,-2,-3  etc,  passim. 

1  9 

The  Bulletin  mentions  Messrs.  Hanover,  Vivien,  Dodds  and 
C.  Allowav.  See  "Local,”  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  6,  1885,  p.  1. 

13,1 ’Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  13,  1835,  p,  1. 


33 


insisted  on  taking  the  land  variety.  li+  On  the  whole,  the  buyers  had 
their  way.  All  in  all,  eight  hundred  sixty-five  certificates  for  money 
scrip  were  issued  at  Edmonton  and  St.  Albert,  as  against  only  one 
hundred  twenty-five  for  land  scrip,  even  though  the  value  of  the 
latter  was  double  that  of  the  former  in  terms  of  the  number  of  acres 
it  could  have  provided  to  the  Metis.15  In  fact,  so  much  money  scrip 
was  issued  that  the  speculators  were  caught  short  of  funds  to  purchase 
all  that  was  offered  for  sale,  and  several  of  them  had  to  return  to 
Calgary  to  replenish  their  supply  of  cash.16  The  price  consequently 
fell  to  below  $0.50  on  the  dollar.  Even  so,  the  Bulletin  considered 

that  more  than  $50,000  in  cash  was  put  into  circulation  in  the  Edmon- 

1  ft 

ton  district  by  the  speculators  during  the  month  of  June. 

Apart  from  the  great  infusion  of  money  into  the  small  local 
economy,  the  Bulletin  saw  another  advantage  that  was  to  be  attributed 
to  the  visit  of  the  scrip  commissioners. 


14 


:bid. 


15"Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  4,  1885,  p.  1.  The  official 
figures  for  land  and  money  scrips  at  Edmonton  and  St.  Albert  as  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  were  430  persons  taking 
money  scrip  and  127  taking  land  scrip.  The  difference  is  accounted  for 
in  part  by  the  fact  that  some  persons  received  two  or  more  certifi¬ 
cates,  being  heirs  to  deceased  Metis.  Also,  some  persons  may  have 
proved  their  claims  at  a  later  date  by  correspondence.  See  Canada, 
Sessional  Papers  for  1886,  Vol.  XIX  (No.  45) ,  pt.  V,  p.  2. 

1 D "Local , "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  20,  1835,  p.  1;  June  27, 
1885,  p.  1;  and  July  4,  1385,' p.  1. 


17,,Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  20,  1885,  p.  1, 

1 8 "Financial, "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  June  20,  1885,  p.  2. 


34 


Not  the  least  benefit  that  the  scrip  issue  is  conferring 
on  the  country  is  the  means  it  offers  half-breeds  who 
have  become  treaty  Indians  to  free  themselves  by  paying 
back  the  treaty  money  they  have  received  in  scrip.  By 
freeing  themselves  from  the  treaty  they  relieve  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  a  considerable  charge  and  heavy  responsibility 

and  enroll  themselves  in  the  ranks  of  the  workers  instead 

1  9 

of  the  drones,  to  which  they  formerly  belonged. 

Indian  Agent  Anderson  appears  to  have  been  perfectly  willing  to  grant 

o  r\ 

discharges  from  Treaty  to  all  who  wished  them.  u  During  June  and  July 
of  1885,  he  processed  the  withdrawal  of  two  hundred  two  Metis  from 
Treaty,  together  with  such  of  their  children  who  were  less  than  fifteen 
years  of  age.21  A  few  of  these  were  from  the  Victoria  Agency,22  but 
the  great  majority  came  from  two  Edmonton  Bands — Michel's,  having  a 
reserve  near  St.  Albert,  and  the  Edmonton  Stragglers,  which  by  this 
time  primarily  consisted  of  women  and  children  who  had  not  been  induced 
to  settle  on  a  reserve  with  any  regular  band.23  Only  twelve  members  of 


19Untitled  item,  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  4,  1885,  p.  2. 

20, ’Local,”  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  4,  1885,  p.  2.  Anderson 
granted  at  least  one  discharge  to  a  woman  who  was  subsequently  unable 
to  prove  that  she  had  any  white  parentage.  SeeP.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3587,  File  1239-14  re  the  case  of  Nancy  Lebrun. 

21W.  Anderson  to  the  Superintendent  General,  August  26,  1885, 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1886,  Vol.  XIX  (No.- 4),  pp.  70-72. 

22Victoria  is  the  former  name  for  Pakan,  Alberta,  near  Smoky 
Lake.  The  Indian  bands  living  in  the  Victoria  district  (i.e.  those  at 
Saddle  Lake,  Egg  or  Whitford  Lake,  Whitefish  Lake,  Beaver  Lake,  Heart 
Lake,  and  Lac  la  Biche)  were  under  the  administration  of  the  Edmonton 
Agency  until  1885,  when  a  separate  Victoria  Agency  was  established 
under  Mr.  John  A.  Mitchell,  Agent. 

23P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3587,  File  1239, 

passim. 


Passpasschase ' s  Band  took  the  opportunity  to  free  themselves  from  the 
24 

Treaty.  For  many,  withdrawal  was  not  very  attractive  or  even  poss¬ 
ible.  They  had  large  families,  and  would  not  have  received  much  scrip 
if  any,  after  the  sums  which  they  had  received  in  annuities  had  been 
deducted. 

Since  they  had  experienced  difficulty  in  securing  all  the 
scrip  available  to  them  at  Edmonton,  it  does  not  seem  likely  that  the 
speculators  would  have  over-exerted  themselves  to  induce  more  Metis  to 
obtain  discharges  from  Treaty  at  that  place.  Nevertheless,  the  Deputy 
Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  Lawrence  Vankoughnet,  re¬ 
ported  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  in  early  April  of  1886  that  he  had 
learned  that  "interested  parties"  had  held  out  inducements  to  some 
Metis  enrolled  in  the  Treaty  to  have  them  obtain  discharges  and  par¬ 
ticipate  in  the  half-breed  grant.  The  deputy  reported  that  "the  most 
dissolute  and  improvident  Half-breeds  connected  with  the  Treaties" 
were  the  ones  that  had  received  the  greatest  attention,  and  that  in 
many  cases,  these  persons  had  been  persuaded  "to  leave  the  Treaty  and 


24They  were  Isaac  Daigneault,  St.  Genvieve  Douquette,  Abraham 
Cummings  (Longbones) ,  Maria  Lapointe,  Pierre  Nadeau,  Pierre  (Jacob) 
Cardinal,  Michel  Cardinal,  Agnes  Cardinal,  Abraham  Brunneau,  Rosalie 
Gladeau,  Christine  Glaaeau  (Lightening),  and  Mary  Cardinal.  See 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3587,  Files  1239-7,-78,-85,-133, 
“147,-153,-154,-155,-163,-180,-185,  and  -158.  Also  D.I.N.A.,  Annuity 
Paysheets  for  1885  -  Passpasschase  Band.  Mary  Cardinal  is  not  listed 
on  the  paysheets.  There  were  a  number  of  others  who  received  dis¬ 
charges  at  distant  poinrs  who  had  at  one  time  been  paid  annuities  as 
members  of  Passpasschase ' s  Band.  These  people  do  not  seem  to  have  ever 
identified  themselves  with  the  band,  and  only  collected  the  annuities 
with  it  as  a  matter  of  convenience.  See,  for  example,  the  Vandalle 
family,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3587,  Files  1239-375,-376, 
-377,  and  -378. 


86 


accept  of  scrip  [sic] ,  which  they  no  sooner  obtain  than  they  dispose 
of  for  a  trifle  to  the  interested  parties  aforesaid  and  spend  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  in  dissapation  [sic]."  Pointing  out  that  these  Metis  would  even¬ 
tually  be  thrown  as  a  burden  again  upon  the  government,  Vankoughnet 
insisted  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  prevent  such  abuses  before  the 
next  visit  of  the  scrip  commission  to  the  North  West  in  the  coming 
summer.  Noting  that  one  of  the  most  effective  lies  being  fostered 
among  the  Treaty  Metis  was  that  they  would  not  be  compelled  to  leave 
their  reserves  after  they  took  scrip,  he  issued  instructions  to 
Commissioner  Dewdney  to  explicitly  warn  all  persons  seeking  discharges 
from  Treaty  that  this  was  not  the  case,  and  that  all  persons  who  with¬ 
drew  from  Treaty  would  be  evicted  from  their  reserves  forthwith.  The 
deputy  also  recommended  that  all  scrip  issued  to  Metis  who  had  once 
been  members  of  any  Indian  bands,  should  be  non- transferable  for  a  term 

O  C 

of  five  years. 

Rather  than  take  steps  to  combat  the  abuse  which  Vankoughnet 
had  identified,  the  government  greatly  aggravated  the  problem.  Thomas 
White,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  and  thus  the  Minister  responsible 
for  the  North-West  Half-Breed  Scrip  Commission,  flatly  rejected  the 
Deputy  Superintendent  General's  suggestion  that  the  transferability  of 
scrip  be  limited.  D  Furthermore,  the  government  reversed  itself  on  its 
policy  of  deducting  a  refund  of  Indian  annuities  from  the  value  of 
scrip  issued  to  Treaty  Metis.  Those  who  had  been  charged  for  such  a 

25L.  Vankoughnet  ro  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  April  3,  1886, 
F.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3723,  File  24,303-2. 

2eThomas  White  to  Sir  John  A,  Macdonald,  April  12,  1886, 


refund  in  1885  were  to  receive  a  second  certificate  of  scrip  in  the 
amount  of  their  previous  deduction,  and  other  Metis  in  Treaty  no  longer 
had  to  weigh  the  cost  of  the  repayment  of  their  annuities  against  the 
value  of  the  full  scrip  grant.27  This  was  to  make  Half-Breed  Scrip 
very  much  more  attractive  to  many  Treaty  Indians,  and  in  1886  there 
were  to  be  many  "interested  parties"  eager  to  convince  them  to  forsake 
their  Indian  status. 

Problems  first  became  evident  at  the  Bear's  Hills  Indian  Agency, 
south  of  Edmonton.  Scrip  speculators  had  hired  Metis  runners  to  con¬ 
vince  as  many  Indians  as  possible  to  seek  discharges  from  the  Treaty, 
and  when  the  Scrip  Commission  arrived,  it  was  quite  evident  that  this 

O  O 

tactic  had  had  some  effect.  To  the  consternation  of  the  speculators. 
Agent  Lucas  attempted  to  provide  the  Indians  who  were  clamouring  for 
scrip  an  opportunity  to  reconsider.  He  closed  his  office  and  accom¬ 
panied  Inspector  Wadsworth  on  a  tour  of  his  reserves,  thus  delaying 


P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3723,  File  24,303-2. 

2  7 

I  have  been  unable  to  locate  the  files  containing  the  details 
of  this  change  in  policy,  or  any  indication  of  the  reasons  for  it. 
Possibly  it  was  considered  that  the  government  had  no  legal  right  to 
recover  the  annuities.  The  change  was  made,  much  to  the  bewilderment 
of  men  like  William  Anderson.  W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner, 
July  13,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3758,  File  31,665. 

2  ft 

Charles  Whit ford  of  Blindman  was  one  such  runner.  See 
T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  8,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3746,  File  29,690-4. 


88 


the  grant  of  any  discharges  from  Treaty.  This  only  succeeded  in 

p  q 

angering  all  parties. 

And  so  the  discharges  began.  Inspector  Wadsworth  began  to 
become  alarmed  as  he  realized  that  far  more  applications  were  being 
made  than  had  been  anticipated.  Worse,  those  who  had  left  Treaty 
immediately  went  to  work  in  an  effort  to  convince  their  friends  to  join 
them.  Those  who  showed  themselves  unwilling  to  forsake  the  Treaty  were 
taunted  with  cries  of  "Slave"  and  told  "Everything  you  have  belongs  to 

q  n 

the  Government!"  at  every  turn.  u  The  Agent  had  no  instructions  which 
would  have  permitted  him  to  refuse  anyone's  application  for  discharge 
that  had  been  made  according  to  form,  and  since  the  only  evidence 
required  was  that  of  sworn  statements  by  friends  to  the  effect  that  the 
applicant  was  of  mixed  blood,  few  Indians  had  any  difficulty  in 
"proving"  that  they  were  entitled  to  be  considered  "half-breeds . " d 1 
The  situation  grew  worse  as  many  of  the  Metis  from  the  district  around 
the  Bear's  Hills  Reserves  became  disgruntled  that  so  many  people  should 
have  been  allowed  the  benefits  of  both  the  Indian  Treaty  and  scrip, 
while  they  had  to  be  content  with  the  scrip  alone.  Furthermore,  there 
were  threatening  rumours  that  those  who  had  received  Treaty  discharges 
would  not  permit  the  benefits  of  the  Treaty  to  be  taken  from  them. 

Each  applicant  was  carefully  informed  that  he  would  lose  all  special 

23S.  B.  Lucas  [to  the  Indian  Commissioner] ,  June  30,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3752,  File  32,353. 

30T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  8,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3746,  File  29,690-4. 

31T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  7,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 


89 


q  p 

rights  he  had  formerly  enjoyed  as  an  Indian.  Nevertheless,  many  of 
those  who  had  left  Treaty  stated  privately  that  should  they  ever  need 
assistance  in  the  future,  they  would  compel  the  government  to  extend 
it  to  them,  and  when  warned  that  they  would  be  evicted  from  the 
reserves  replied:  "We'll  see  about  that!"33  As  the  members  of  their 
bands  became  more  and  more  unsettled,  Chiefs  Samson  and  Ermineskin 
appealed  to  Inspector  Wadsworth  to  prohibit  any  further  discharges 
from  Treaty  in  their  Agency.  3l+  Without  any  authority  from  his  super¬ 
iors,  Wadsworth  ordered  Agent  Lucas  to  stop  granting  discharges  on 
July  1,  1886. 35  The  latter  readily  agreed,  but  already.  Chief  Bobtail 
and  the  majority  of  his  Band  had  declared  themselves  Metis,  and  taken 
scrip,  and  many  from  Samson's  and  Ermineskin’ s  Bands  besides.33 

When  the  Scrip  Commission  moved  to  Edmonton  on  July  3,  the 
problem  was  repeated  on  a  larger  scale.  Some  Indians  had  taken  care 
to  get  their  discharges  from  Treaty  before  the  Commission  arrived, 
including  Frangois  Gladieu  and  his  family,  a  headman  of  Chief  Pass- 
passchase.3/  There  were  many  more  who  wished  to  follow  him.  In  fact 

32Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  April  8,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3723,  File  24,303-1. 

33T.  p .  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  8,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3746,  File  29,690-4. 

3 4 Ibid. 

35T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  7,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A.  Also  S.  B.  Lucas,  "Reg¬ 
ister  of  Letters  Received,"  in  "Hobbema  Indian  Agency  Papers,  1884- 
1949,"  Glenhow-Alberta  Institute,  Calgary. 

3 3 "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  3,  1886,  p.  1?  "Local," 
ibid. ,  July  10,  1886,  p.  1. 

37Frangois  Gladieu  was  originally  from  Lac  la  Biche  and  does 


90 


the  entire  membership  of  Passpasschase  and  Enoch's  Bands  left  their 
reserves  and  camped  near  the  Scrip  Commission  All  members  of  the 
Passpasschase  Band  wished  to  withdraw  from  Treaty,  hoping,  they  said, 
to  homestead  their  reserve.  Chief  Enoch  and  the  majority  of  his  band 

o  q 

had  a  similar  ambition.  ^ 

Inspector  Wadsworth,  who  had  moved  on  to  Edmonton,  became  even 

more  alarmed.  The  claim  of  Passpasschase  and  his  followers  that  they 

would  homestead  their  reserve,  he  regarded  as  ridiculous.  Writing  to 

Commissioner  Dewdney,  he  expostulated: 

Now  sir  you  are  well  aware  how  largely  this  band  is  made 
up  of  widows,  old  people  and  children,  they  cannot  poss¬ 
ibly  make  their  own  living:  the  Chief  and  his  brothers 
are  undoubtedly  half-breeds  and  might  scratch  along,  but 
even  they  have  each  two  wives  and  numbers  of  children.140 

As  for  the  members  of  Enoch's  Band  who  were  clamouring  for  discharges, 

the  Inspector  believed  that  to  allow  them  such,  would  "only  send  so 

many  paupers  out  into  the  country." 

Already  there  have  been  discharges  granted  to  some  who  as 
Indians  were  quite  unable  to  provide  a  living  for  them¬ 
selves  and  families,  but  Indian  like,  they  are  contented 
to  let  tomorrow  look  out  for  itself  providing  they  get 
the  scrip.41 


not  appear  to  have  been  related  to  Chief  Passpasschase,  despite  the 
Gladu  name.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  358S,  Files 
1239-473  to  1239-477.  Also,  P.A.C.,  Interior  Records,  Vol.  1349,  File: 
"Gladieu,"  (Frangois,  Catherine,  Edward  Charles). 

o8W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  July  31,  1836,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records, Vol.  3763,  File  32,594. 

39T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  7,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 

4 Oyvp  ^ 


41 Ibid. 


Wadsworth  dispatched  an  urgent  telegram  to  Commissioner  Dewdney 

on  July  4,  the  day  the  Scrip  Commission  opened  sittings  at  Edmonton , 

asking  if  all  Indians  who  represented  themselves  as  Metis  but  led  the 

"same  mode  of  life"  as  Indians  should  be  allowed  discharges,  and 

warning  that  if  they  were ,  there  would  be  a  "perfect  exodus . "  He 

asked  that  the  Agents  be  given  positive  and  immediate  instructions. 1+2 

Dewdney  passed  the  question  on  to  Ottawa. 4 ^  Ihe  Commissioner  further 

explained  that  practically  every  native  in  the  Saskatchewan  Valley 

had  some  white  blood,  and  it  was  not  too  difficult  for  an  Indian  to 

prove  such.  He,  too,  was  alarmed  at  the  large  numbers  asking  for 

scrip,  and  outlined  the  situation  in  terms  similar  to  Wadsworth’s: 

Led  by  a  desire  for  immediate  acquisition,  and  undeterred 
by  prudential  forethought,  or  provident  consideration, 
many  now  desire  to  cast  away  the  fruits  of  their  past 
four  or  five  years '  labour  upon  the  reserves ,  and  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  presence  of 
the  half-breed  commission  in  the  north  to  withdraw  and 
obtain  scrip.  It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  they 
take  no  heed  for  the  future,  but  are  swayed  by  the  expect¬ 
ation  of  having  a  few  days  of  comparative  prosperity ,  to 
be  obtained  from  the  sale  of  their  scrip. 

No  doubt  also,  they  are  influenced  by  the  example  of 
halfbreeds,  and  by  the  specious  representation  of 
designing  speculators,  who  have  their  own  ends  in  view.^*4 


^ 2 Ibid . 

^E.  Dewdney,  telegram  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  July  7,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol .  3724,  File  24 , 303-2A. 

4lfE.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  7,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 


92 


The  Edmonton  Bulletin  saw  the  matter  differently: 

If  after  six  or  eight  years  of  control  and  assistance 
under  the  reserve  system  the  result  is  that  the  Indians 
desire  to  change  it  for  one  apparently  less  advantageous, 
and  at  the  same  time  have  made  so  little  progress  in 
civilization  as  to  be  as  little  able  to  support  them¬ 
selves  as  when  they  first  took  the  treaty,  it  is  strong 
evidence  that  the  present  system  is  a  failure  as  a 
civilizing  influence  or  as  a  means  of  producing 
content  [ment]  ,  and  therefore  should  be  changed.  .  .  . 45 

Both  Dewdney  and  Wadsworth  recommended  that  some  system  be  est¬ 
ablished  under  which  discretion  could  be  exercised  by  some  represent¬ 
ative  of  the  Department  in  deciding  whether  a  discharge  should  be 
allowed.  The  Inspector  cautioned  against  leaving  responsibility  for 
such  decisions  with  the  Agent,  "for  if  men  (Indians)  are  forced  to 
remain  in  Treaty  by  the  action  of  the  Agent  it  will  not  increase  his 
influence  or  popularity  among  them."46  Dewdney,  for  his  part,  warned 
that  if  persons  unable  to  support  themselves  were  allowed  to  withdraw, 
the  government  would  eventually  be  forced  to  feed  them,  as  it  could 
not  permit  them  to  starve,  and  many  such  persons  would,  through  des¬ 
peration,  soon  be  involved  in  criminal  activities.47 

Meanwhile  in  Edmonton,  the  Scrip  Commission  got  down  to 
business,  and  it  certainly  enlivened  the  Edmonton  scene: 


4 5 "Treaty  vs.  Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  7,  1886,  p.  2. 

46T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  7,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,3G3-2A. 

47E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  7,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 


93 


.  .  .  about  the  land  office  was  like  a  fair  ground,  from 
the  number  of  men,  women  and  children,  horses  and  buggies 
of  all  descriptions,  standing  leaning  or  lying  around. 

The  proceedings  were  enlivened  by  an  occasional  horse 
race  and  on  Wednesday  by  one  or  two  small  fights,  but  as 
a  general  thing  everything  was  very  quiet  and  orderly.  .  .  . 

The  town  had  flush  times  during  these  four  days.  The 
stores  and  saloons  reaped  a  regular  harvest,  horses  and 
cattle  changed  hands  at  lightning  rate  and  at  good  figures, 
and  the  inspiring  horse  race  absorbed  whatever  money  could 
not  conveniently  be  blown  in  any  other  way. 1+8 

Agent  Anderson  issued  a  few  discharges  to  Treaty  Indians  on 

July  5  and  6,  including  two  to  members  of  Passpasschase ' s  Band, 4+9  but 

the  crisis  came  on  Wednesday,  July  7  when  the  entire  Passpasschase  Band 

demanded  their  discharge.  The  Agent  sent  a  frantic  telegram  to 

Commissioner  Dewdney  in  Regina : 

Pass  Chase  Band  made  application  for  discharge  from 
treaty  alleging  themselves  to  be  half-breeds.  Enoch's 
contemplate  the  same:  what  action  am  I  to  take. 

Answer  quick.59 

Since  no  clear  instructions  had  yet  been  received  from  Ottawa,  Dewdney 
replied  that  no  further  discharges  from  Treaty  should  be  given  until 
further  notice.51 

An  immediate  howl  of  protest  went  up.  The  members  of  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  and  Enoch's  Bands  were  described  as  "disappointed  and  somewhat 


48 "Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  4. 


49They  were  to  Margaret  Papin 
Lapointe.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
1239-481  and  1239-484. 


(Maggie),  and  to  Jean  Baptiste 
Records,  Vol.  3589,  Files 


50W.  Anderson,  telegram  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  7, 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 


1886,  P.A.C., 


51Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  26,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A.. 


94 


C  O 

wrathful."  They  absolutely  refused  to  return  to  their  reserves, 
and  continued  to  camp  beside  the  Scrip  Commission,  clamouring  for 
discharges. 53  Richard  Hardisty,  the  Chief  Factor  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  at  Edmonton,  sent  Commissioner  Dewdney  a  telegram  urging 
that  Passpasschase  and  his  brothers  be  allowed  to  withdraw. 54  Chief 
Passpasschase  went  even  higher,  sending  a  telegram  to  Prime  Minister 
Sir  John  A.  Macdonald: 

Why  can't  we  get  same  as  peace  Hills  [Bear's  Hills] 
halfbreeds  taking  treaty,  we  want  our  scrip. ^ 

The  Edmonton  Bulletin  professed  itself  to  be  puzzled: 

The  course  of  the  Indian  department  in  refusing  to 
grant  further  discharges  to  half-breeds  who  have  up  to 
the  present  time  been  classed  as  treaty  Indians  and  who 
now  desire  to  resume  their  proper  condition  as  half- 
breeds  and  secure  scrip  is  one  of  the  many  things  done 
by  that  department  which  are  altogether  inexplicable. 

The  only  reason  that  can  be  thought  of  for  this  refusal 
is  that  the  parties  concerned  desire  it.  But  this  has 
always  been  a  reason  for  refusing  anything  by  the 
department. 56 

It  had  no  doubt  that  it  would  be  most  "profitable  to  the  country"  and 
beneficial  to  the  parties  concerned  if  they  were  allowed  to  forsake 
their  Indian  status. 


52 "Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  4. 

53W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  July  31,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3763,  File  32,594. 

5i+R.  Hardisty,  telegram  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  9 ,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 

5 5 John  Quinn  (Passpasschase)  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  July 
15,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303~2A. 

56 "Indian  Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  2. 


95 


At  present  the  country  pays  each  one  five  dollars  a  year 
in  cash  and  gives  them  certain  stipulated  amounts  of 
provisions,  clothing,  ammunition,  stock  and  implements 
and  locks  up  reserves  of  land  in  choice  locations  to  the 
amount  of  160  acres  for  each.  Besides  this  the  country 
is  bound  by  solemn  treaty  to  replace  to  them  the  loss  of 
food  sustained  by  the  extinction  of  the  buffalo.  The 
results  of  this  dependent  condition  .  .  .  has  [sic]  been 
anything  but  beneficial  to  the  Indians.  They  have  lost 
to  a  very  great  extent  their  individual  self  respect, 
independence  and  industry,  never  too  highly  developed, 
while  the  half-breeds  who  joined  them  .  .  .  have  sunk 
from  instead  of  advancing  in  civilization. 57 

Frank  Oliver's  newspaper  further  hypothesized  that  once  freed  from  the 

belief  that  the  government  was  bound  to  feed  them,  those  receiving 

discharges  would  exert  themselves  more  in  order  to  make  a  living.  It 

admitted  that 

No  doubt  some  will  leave  the  treaty  from  pure  improvi¬ 
dence,  looking  only  to  the  cash  which  the  scrip  will 
sell  for,  and  no  doubt  assistance  will  be  required  by 
them  at  times  in  the  future  as  it  has  been  in  the  past.58 

But  it  was  sure  that  even  in  these  cases  the  country  would  benefit,  for 

the  government  would  then  be  in  a  much  better  position  to  exact  work  in 

return  for  the  assistance  given.59 


5?ibid.  From  a  factual  standpoint,  this  statement  was  not 
entirely  accurate.  Under  Treaty  6,  bands  were  entitled  to  reserves  of 
128  acres  per  capita,  not  160.  The  "stipulated"  amounts  of  provisions, 
stock,  and  implements  which  the  Bulletin  mentions,  had,  by  and  large, 
already  been  given  to  the  Edmonton  Bands,  and  the  country  could  not 
expect  a  saving  on  that  account.  The  clothing  "stipulated"  in  the 
Treaty  was  only  for  the  Chief  and  Headmen  of  each  band,  and  did  not 
impose  a  heavy  burden  on  the  country.  While  the  government  of  the  day 
would  certainly  have  denied  that  it  was  "bound  by  solemn  treaty"  to 
replace  the  loss  of  food  resulting  from  the  extinction  of  the  buffalo, 
the  Bulletin 1 s  interpretation  of  this  part  of  the  Treaty  was  probably 
more  reasonable. 


5  9_,-, 
0:7  Ibid. 


96 


It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  such  arguments  and  protests 
had  any  effect  on  the  government’s  decision.  The  Prime  Minister  was 
embarking  on  a  trip  to  the  West  when  the  problem  arose,60  and  no  deci¬ 
sion  could  be  made  until  his  arrival  at  Winnipeg.  When  Dewdney  and 
Macdonald  finally  had  an  opportunity  to  discuss  the  matter,  they 
decided  to  adopt  a  suggestion  of  Scrip  Commissioner  Roger  Goulet.61 
Instructions  were  issued  on  July  19,  declaring  that 


Treaty  Half-Breeds  who  clearly  show  that  they  are  Half 
Breeds  and  who  do  not  lead  the  same  mode  of  life  as 
Indians  should  be  allowed  to  withdraw  from  treaty. 

Others  should  not  be  allowed.62 

A  declaration  was  also  drafted  which  was  to  be  signed  by  each  person 


withdrawing  from  Treaty,  and  countersigned  by  the  Indian  Agent,  who  was 


required  to  certify  that  the  declaration  had  been  read  and  explained  to 
the  applicant  for  discharge.  It  read  as  follows: 

I  hereby  forfeit  all  Indian  rights.  I  agree  to 
leave  the  reserve,  to  give  up  my  house  and  all  other 
improvements  which  I  may  have  on  the  reserve  without 
compensation  also  any  cattle  or  any  implements’  received 
by  me  as  an  individual  or  as  a  member  of  the  Eand.63 


Inspector  Wadsworth  was  appointed  to  make  the  decisions  as  to  who  foll¬ 
owed  an  Indian  "mode  of  life"  and  who  did  not.64 


6 °L.  Vankoughnet,  telegram  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  8,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303~2A. 

6lSee  R.  Goulet,  telegram  to  A.  M.  Burgess,  July  12,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 

62Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  26,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A.  This  letter 
contains  verbatim  quotes  from  many  items  since  lost. 

6 3 "Form  of  Agreement,"  July,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Rec¬ 
ords,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 

64Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  26,  1886, 


No  doubt,  the  policy  adopted  might  have  been  considered  a 


practical  one,  but  it  seems  that  it  contravened  the  existing  law. 
Because  an  Indian  "mode  of  life"  was  difficult  to  define,  decisions 
tended  to  be  made  on  whether  the  discharged  Indians  would  be  likely  to 
support  themselves.  But  the  Indian  Act  had  been  amended  in  1884  to 
allow  any  "Half-Breed"  participating  in  the  benefits  of  any  Indian 
Treaty  to  be  discharged  by  declaring  in  writing  his  desire  to  with¬ 
draw  before  two  witnesses.  There  was  no  provision  whatever  in  the  Act 
which  would  allow  any  government  official  to  forbid  any  such  with- 

c  r 

drawal.  But,  as  there  was'  no  one  in  Edmonton  who  drew  attention  to 

this  fact,  the  Inspector  was  permitted  to  practise  his  discretion. 

Wadsworth  was  not  entirely  satisfied  with  his  instructions,  and 

requested  a  definition  of  "Indian  mode  of  life."  He  pointed  out  that 

almost  all  Indians  engaged  to  some  extent  in  agriculture,  albeit  with 

varying  degrees  of  success.  One  family's  applications  in  particular 

which  bothered  him  he  referred  to  the  Indian  Commissioner: 

Are  Chief  'Pass-pass-chase '  and  brothers  to  be  granted 
discharges,  they  farm,  some  live  in  lodges  in  summer, 
houses  in  winter  -  the  course  you  direct  to  be  pursued 
towards  them  will  guide  action  in  other  cases. 


P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24, 303-2A. 

65See  T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  27,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,393-2A. 

66Canada,  The  Indian  Act  (1886) ,  49  Vic.,  Cap  43,  Sec.  13. 

67Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  July  26,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 


Dewdney  tersely  replied: 

I  think  Pass-pass-chase  and  brothers  night  be  granted 
discharges . 68 

Thus  the  Chief  and  Headmen  of  the  band  which  the  Indian  Commissioner 
had  described  as  "more  Indian  in  action  and  appearance  than  any  I  have 
seen  in  some  time"  less  than  a  year  before,  were  declared  to  be  not 
leading  "the  same  mode  of  life  as  Indians"  by  the  same  person. 

With  this  decision,  the  exodus  from  Treaty  began.  The  Scrip 
Commission  had  moved  to  St.  Albert,  and  the  Passpasschase  and  Enoch's 
Bands  had  followed  them.  There,  an  even  greater  carnival-like  atmos¬ 
phere  prevailed.  Edmonton  was  all  but  deserted  as  its  citizens  flocked 
to  the  neighbouring  settlement  in  order  to  share  in  the  excitement. 

A  dozen  beer  saloons  adorn  the  grounds,  and  a  lively  trade 
is  done  in  everything  that  can  be  sold  or  bought.  Horse 
and  foot  racing  and  betting  have  been  rife  all  week,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  give  a  report  on  the  numerous  events. 

,69 

It  was  under  these  conditions  that  the  large  families  of  Chief  Pass¬ 
passchase  and  his  brothers  forsook  the  Indian  Treaty.  The  family  took 
the  name  of  Gladieu  Quinn  from  the  names  of  two  of  their  fur  trader 
forefathers  in  the  Lesser  Slave  Lake  region  from  which  they  had  moved 
thirty  years  before. 7 ^  The  discharge  of  the  fifty-eight  members  of 
the  family  meant  a  sizeable  reduction  in  the  band's  population  of  one 
hundred  ninety-four  persons. 7i 

6 8  Ibid. 

o9"Locaif"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  17,  1886,  p.  4. 

70See  P.A.C.,  Interior  Records,  Vol.  1364,  File  "Quinney  to 
Quintal. " 

71See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3589,  Files  1239-490, 


But  these  were  not  all.  Having  received  specific  instructions 
concerning  Chief  Passpasschase ' s  family,  Inspector  Wadsworth  proceeded 
to  draw  up  general  guidelines  for  other  cases.  He  eventually  decided 
that  no  Metis  then  in  Treaty  who  received  regular  rations  from  his 
Agent,  who  lived  by  hunting,  or  who  was  a  vagrant  around  white  settle¬ 
ments  would  receive  a  discharge .  Nor  would  those  who  could  not  give 
the  English  or  French  name  of  their  fathers.72  Even  so,  the  task  was 
not  easy.  Wadsworth  reported  that  every  Indian  seemed  able  to  prove  he 
was  Metis,  even  though  the  Inspector  believed  that  many  of  the  wit¬ 
nesses  to  this  effect  were  suborned.73  He  gave  as  one  example  of  his 
problems,  the  case  of  Lazarus  Lapotac,  brother  of  Chief  Enoch  Lapotac 
of  Stony  Plain.  Both  Lazarus  and  Enoch,  whom  Wadsworth  declared  were 
"known  to  be  pure  Indians,"  wished  to  take  scrip.  Before  a  halt  was 
called  to  Treaty  withdrawals,  Lazarus  had  succeeded  in  drawing  scrip  as 
the  heir  of  his  two  deceased  brothers,  under  the  names  of  Joseph  and 
Jacob  Morin,  although  not  for  himself.  When  asked  how  he  got  the  name 
Morin,  Lazarus  had  frankly  replied  that  he  had  chosen  it  at  random 
because  he  had  once  known  a  white  many  by  that  name.7*4  Strange  situ- 


and  1239-493;  Vol.  3590,  Files  1239-515,-517,-519,-520,-521,-522,-523, 
-524,-526,-527,-531;  and  D.I.N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1SS5  and  1886  - 
Passpasschase  Band.  The  194  figure  is  from  the  1885  payments. 

72T .  P.  Wadsworth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  27,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 

73Ibid.  Dewdney,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  believed  this. 
He  declared  that  almost  every  Indian  in  the  Saskatchewan  Valley  was,  to 
some  extent,  of  mixed  blood. 

74T.  P.  Wadsowrth  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  8,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3764,  File  29,690-4.  Enoch  and  Lazarus  were  not 
allowed  discharges. 


ations  had  thus  arisen  in  which  one  man  might  be  declared  to  be  a 
"Half-Breed"  and  allowed  scrip,  while  his  brother  might  be  classed  as 
an  Indian  and  denied  a  discharge  from  Treaty „ 

Furthermore,  there  was  much  ill-feeling  concerning  Wadsworth's 
frequent  refusals  to  grant  discharges  to  applicants.  The  Inspector 
reported  that  the  disappointed  parties  would  behave  very  badly,  threat¬ 
ening  never  to  return  to  their  reserves  again,  and  almost  committing 
breaches  of  the  peace  in  their  angry  demonstrations.  The  Bulletin, 
too,  was  critical  of  Wadsworth's  refusing  any  applicant  a  discharge 
from  Treaty. 

To  allow  a  man  to  have  his  own  way  is  the  surest  means 
•  of  stopping  his  complaints,  whether  he  is  really  bene- 
fitted  thereby  or  not,  and  as  the  way  these  parties 
desire  to  go  will  decrease  instead  of  increasing  the 
burden  and  responsibilities  of  the  government,  it  is 
politic  to  let  them  take  it.7^ 

Besides  this,  Frank  Oliver ' s. newspaper  declared  that  a  great  opportunity 
was  being  missed: 

By  the  parties  who  so  desire — whether  half-breeds  or 
Indians — leaving  the  treaty  the  country  would  be 
relieved  from  a  portion  of  the  annual  payments  in 
cash  and  treaty  supplies,  the  reserves  could  be 
decreased  in  size  or  broken  up  and  the  country  would 
be  under  no  treaty  obligation  to  feed  them,  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  which  would  tend  to  induce  them  to  work  for 
themselves.  All  this  would  be  clear  gain  to  the 
country. 76 


7 ° "Treaty  vs.  Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  7,  1886,  p.  2. 


76 


:ndian  Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  2. 


101 


But  there  were  others  who  thought  that  altogether  too  many 
discharges  were  being  granted.  Rev.  Father  Z.  Lizee,  who  had  conducted 
the  school  on  the  Passpasschase  Reserve,  confided  to  his  private 
journal  "Poor  savages.1  How  they  are  to  be  pitied.'  The  money  which 
they  receive  will  be  squandered  as  quickly  as  it  is  received."77 
Other  officials  of  the  Catholic  Church  were  equally  concerned.  Both 
Bishop  Grandin  and  Father  Lacombe  communicated  with  the  government,  and 
pleaded  against  allowing  any  withdrawals  from  Treaty.78 

In  the  middle  of  such  opposing  pressures,  Inspector  Wadsworth 
did  grant  a  considerable  number  of  discharges,  although  not  nearly  as 
many  as  were  demanded.  In  addition  to  the  fifty-eight  Gladieu  Quinns, 
and  their  dependent  relatives,  thirty-eight  other  members  of  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  Band  were  permitted  to  escape  the  bonds  of  the  Indian  Treaty.79 
Thus,  by  the  actions  of  the  North-West  Half-Breed  Scrip  Commission  in 
1886,  the  population  of  the  Two  Hills  Band  of  Indians  was  decreased  by 
one  hundred  two  persons ,  or  more  than  half  of  its  total . 8  0  The  Edmonton 


77My  translation  of  "Pauvres  sauvages,  qu'ils  sont  a  plaindre.' 
1' argent  qu'ils  regoivent  ils  le  gaspillent  au  fur  et  a  mesure  ..." 
from  Rev.  Pere  Zeph.  Lizee,  "Mon  Journal  prive  de  7-7-84  a  19-1-87," 
entry  for  Juiliet  22,  1886,  in  Oblate  Papers,  Alberta  Provincial 
Archives,  Edmonton. 

78 L.  Vankoughnet,  telegram  to  E.  Dewdney,  July  29,  1886;  and 
A.  Lacombe  to  Mr.  Vankoughnet,  August  6,  1886,  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 

79P . A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3590,  Files  1239-504, 
-506,  -507,  -509,  -513,  -514,  -532. 

80The  total  consists  of  the  96  band  members  discharged  after 
July  19,  1886,  and  the  6  who  had  been  discharged  before  July  7.  There 
were,  of  course,  12  others  who  had  been  given  discharges  in  1885  and  an 
indeterminate  number  who  were  granted  discharges  at  places  other  than 
Edmonton.  The  last  named  group,  however,  were  hardly  true  members  of 
the  Passpasschase  Band,  having  lived  apart  from  the  Band  for  several 
years. 


10 


Indian  Agency  was  the  most  seriously  affected  by  withdrawals  from  Treaty 
in  the  North  West,  suffering  almost  double  the  number  of  any  other..  8- 
Only  two  bands  exceeded  Passpasschase ' s  in  the  number  of  withdrawals — 
Peeaysis,  or  the  Lac  la  Biche  Band  in  the  Victoria  Agency,  and  Michel's 
Band  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Edmonton  Agent.82  But  while  others 
may  have  lost  more  in  numbers,  the  Passpasschase  Band  was  to  be  the 
only  one  which  would  lose  its  reserve  as  well.83 

The  discharged  Metis  presented  many  problems.  One  was  politi¬ 
cal.  Commissioner  Dewdney  took  up  the  question  of  whether  these  people 
ought  to  be  given  the  vote  with  the  Prime  Minister,  and  offered  the 
kind  of  solution  that  Macdonald  would  appreciate. 

A  man  who  lives  in  a  tepee  should  not  be  considered 
a  householder,  unless  he  is  a  Conservative.8^ 

More  serious  problems  involved  the  economic  future  of  those  who  had 


O  -i 

x"List  of  Halfbreeds  who  have  withdrawn  from  Treaty;  June  1, 
1888,"  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3587,  File  1239-B.  This 
official  listing  showed  290  withdrawals  in  the  Edmonton  Agency.  There 
were  152  withdrawals  in  the  Victoria  Agency,  138  in  the  Prince  Albert 
Agency,  49  in  the  Peace  Hills  Agency  and  48  at  Touchwood  Hills.  All 
other  agencies  had  less  than  30  withdrawals. 

82Ibid.  The  figures  were  Peeaysis  Band  (Lac  la  3iche)  93  with¬ 
drawals;  Michel's  Band  71  withdrawals;  Passpasschase  Band  61  with¬ 
drawals.  (These  figures  referred  only  to  those  eligible  to  receive 
scrip — that  is,  those  born  before  July  15,  1870.  The  figure  of  102 
persons  discharged  from  the  Passpasschase  Band  quoted  above  included 
not  only  those  eligible  to  receive  scrip,  but  also  their  dependents 
who  were  too  young  to  participate  in  the  grant.) 

83The  Peeaysis  Band  had  never  had  a  reserve.  Michel's  Band  did 
not  surrender  any  of  its  land  until  1903. 

8i+E.  Dewdney  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  November  4,  1886, 

P.A.C.,  Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  213,  No.  90882-90883. 


103 


withdrawn.  After  the  1885  scrip  issue  Dewdney  had  tried  to  assist  the 
former  Indians  by  directing  the  Indian  Agents  to  lend  them  such  imple¬ 
ments  and  materials  as  could  help  them  reestablish  themselves  as  self- 
sufficient  Metis.85  In  1886,  Dewdney  also  agreed  to  let  the  recent 
withdrawals  remain  on  their  former  reserves  long  enough  to  harvest  that 
year's  crops.86 

As  might  have  been  foreseen,  those  who  had  taken  scrip  returned 
to  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  and  refused  to  leave.  Some  even  partici- 

o  n 

pated  in  the  killing  of  government  cattle.  In  February,  1887  Agent 
Anderson  called  on  the  Department  for  advice  as  to  how  they  should  be 
evicted,88  and  was  instructed  to  treat  the  discharged  Indians  as  tres¬ 
passers  under  the  Indian  Act,  and  to  call  upon  the  North  West  Mounted 

8  8 

Police  to  remove  them,  if  they  would  not  go  of  their  own  accord. 
Nevertheless,  when  Assistant  Indian  Commissioner  Hayter  Reed  visited 
Edmonton  in  August  of  1887,  they  were  still  in  residence  on  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  Reserve  and  evidently  making  preparations  for  another  winter. 
When  Reed  informed  them  they  would  have  to  move,  they  demanded  compen¬ 
sation  for  their  houses.  They  flatly  denied  having  signed  any  deciar- 

85Indian  Commissioner  to  Indian  Agent,  Edmonton,  January  12, 
1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 

8 6 Hayter  Reed  to  Superintendent  General,  July  26,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-2A. 

8 7 "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  September  13,  1886,  p.  1. 

88W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  February  28,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 

33Hayter  Reed  to  Indian  Agent,  Edmonton,  March  12,  1887,  and 
L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  April  16,  1387,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3595,  File  1239-12. 


ation  agreeing  to  abandon  all  their  improvements  and  property  on  the 
reserve  without  compensation «.  The  Assistant  Commissioner  then  summoned 
the  Indian  Agency  clerk  and  interpreter  to  confront  Passpasschase  and 
the  others  who  had  withdrawn  from  Treaty  with  him.  Upon  being  faced 
with  these  witnesses,  the  former  chief  and  his  followers  had  to  admit 
they  had  signed  such  a  statement.  The  Assistant  Commissioner  reported 
that  the  discharged  Metis  "were  not  the  least  abashed,"  at  being  caught 
out  in  this  fashion,90  and  next  declared  that  they  had  not  intended 
that  the  declaration  they  had  signed  should  have  conveyed  the  meaning 
which  its  language  implied. 9 1 

The  real  problem  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  genuine  mis¬ 
understanding  of  the  terms  of  their  discharge  from  Treaty,  but  rather 
a  financial  difficulty.  The  people  concerned  had  spent  all  of  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  from  the  sale  of  their  scrip,  and  now  had  no  means  to  start  life 
anew.  Reed  refused'  to  pay  any  compensation,  but  did  allow  Passpass¬ 
chase  and  the  other  scrip  takers  to  move  their  houses  off  the  reserve. 
As  the  Treaty  members  of  the  band  agreed  to  abandon  the  reserve  at  this 
time,  the  position  of  the  discharged  Metis  became  much  less  tenable, 

Q  9 

and  they  left  without  causing  further  difficulty.  ■ 

In  later  years,  the  fears  of  those  who  had  opposed  the  granting 
of  scrip  to  adherents  of  the  Treaty  seem  to  have  been  amply  justified. 
In  contrast  to  those  who  had  received  their  sci:ip  in  1885,  those  who 


90Hayter  Reed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  August  22,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

9~Hayter  Reed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  August  18,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

92 


Ibid. 


105 


participated  in  the  1886  grant  received  about  seventy-five  percent  of 
the  face  value  of  their  scrip,  in  cash,  from  the  speculators.35  Some 
were  doubtless  swindled, 3t+  but  Passpasschase  and  his  brothers  seem  to 
have  been  astute  enough  to  avoid  too  great  a  loss  from  that  cause. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  carnival-like  atmosphere,  the  money  dwindled  away 
rapidly.  By  the  winter  of  1887-1888,  many  of  those  who  had  withdrawn 
from  Treaty  had  to  be  rationed  by  the  North  West  Mounted  Police  to 
prevent  their  starvation,  and  this  action  had  to  be  repeated  the  foll¬ 
owing  winter.35  Many  of  those  who  had  been  discharged  in  1885  and  1886 
were  eventually  re-admitted  into  the  Indian  Treaty,  on  the  condition 
that  they  repay  the  face  value  of  their  scrip  from  the  annuities  they 
would  otherwise  have  been  entitled  to. 96  Those  who  were  not  re-admitted 


93see  "Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  4;  "Local," 
ibid. ,  July  17,  1886,  p.  4;  "Local,"  ibid. ,  July  24,  1886,  p.  1.  In 
1885  the  price  had  dipped  to  as  low  as  $0.40  on  the  dollar.  By  pur¬ 
chasing  at  $0.75  on  the  dollar  and  upwards,  the  speculator  was  not 
making  as  large  a  profit  as  it  might  seem.  The  speculator  could  rarely 
apply  the  scrip  to  land  himself,  because  Dominion  Lands  for  sale  pri¬ 
marily  consisted  of  pre-emption  lands  which  only  a  homesteader  on  an 
adjacent  quarter-section  could  purchase.  The  scrip  therefore  had  to  be 
sold  to  an  established  settler  at  a  price  under  its  face  value,  (say 
$0.90  or  $0.95  on  the  dollar) ,  or  there  would  be  no  incentive  for  the 
settler  to  purchase  it. 

-^Such  swindles  were,  no  doubt,  more  regularly  conducted  by 
local  "friends"  of  the  Metis,  who  often  handled  the  scrip  transactions 
for  them  ("Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  10,  1886,  p.  4),  than  by  the 
speculators  among  whom  competition  appears  to  have  been  very  keen. 

3 5 "Rations , "  Edmonton  Bulletin,  March  24,  1888,  p.  4;  "Local," 
ibid. ,  April  7,  1888,  p.  4;  "Local,"  ibid. ,  January  5,  1889,  p.  1;  and 
"Local,"  ibid. ,  January  26,  1889,  p.  1. 

3eHayter  Reed  to  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs, 

June  29,  1887;  Lawrence  Vankoughnet  to  Edgar  Dewdney,  July  11,  1887; 
Edgar  Dewdney  to  Superintendent  General,  August  18,  1887;  and  Bobtail 
et  al.,  agreement  on  terms  of  readmission  to  Treaty,  August  10,  1887. 
All  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3724,  File  24,303-3. 

Wm.  C.  de  Baiinhard  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  December  3,  1888, 


appear  to  have  lived  in  perpetual  hard  times  for  the  rest  of  their 


lives.  In  1891,  Father  Albert  Lacombe  described  them: 

These  miserable  beggars  will  never  be  able  to 
support  themselves  when  away  from  treaty.  They  will 
be  as  they  are  now,  pitching  about,  hanging  round  new 
settlements,  begging  or  working  a  little  once  [in]  a 
while  for  whites,  the  squaws  washing  and  men  cutting 
wood,  besides  .  .  .  [being]  continually  exposed  to  the 
most  ruinous  demoralisation.  .  .  .  You  will  see,  in 
[a]  few  years,  the  government  will  be  obliged  to  take 
back  in  [to]  the  reserves  all  these  free  indians.97 

But  the  government  did  not  feel  obliged  to  take  back  the  majority  of 

these  people,  although  Father  Lacombe  had  scarcely  exaggerated  their 

condition.  Its  only  assistance  to  them  was  the  grant,  in  1900,  of 

another  scrip  issue  to  those  of  their  children  born  between  1870  and 

1885. 


Although  the  granting  of  half-breed  scrip  was  clearly  a  most 
doubtful  means  of  aiding  the  Metis  of  Canada's  North  West,  it  did  have 
the  advantage  of  extinguishing  the  Metis  share  in  the  aboriginal  title 
at  little  cost  to  the  Canadian  taxpayer.  Furthermore,  it  had  been  a 
programme  for  which  the  Metis  had  previously  long  agitated.  While  few 
if  any,  Metis  were  again  allowed  out  of  Treaty  in  order  to  receive 
scrip  after  the  1885  grant  had  run  its  course,  Half-Breed  Scrip  Comm¬ 
issions,  and  the  inevitable  speculators,  attended  the  signings  of 


and  Hayter  Reed  to  Agent,  Edmonton,  10  January,  1889,  both  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Voi.  3595,  File  1239-12. 

9 /Father  A.  Lacombe  to  Hayter  Reed,  February  9,  1891,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3591,  File  1239-715.  See  also  Bishop 
Grandin's  description  of  the  condition  of  these  people  in  V,  Grandin 
to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  August  5,  1899,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affair 
Records,  Vol.  3953,  File  135,540-1. 


107 


Treaties  Eight  to  Eleven  and  seduced  many  who  might  otherwise  have 
entered  the  Treaty  with  the  lure  of  hard  cash. 

Chief  Passpasschase  and  those  who  had  followed  him  out  of 
Treaty  seem  to  have  done  somewhat  better  than  others  similarly  sit¬ 
uated.  Some  of  them  were  commended  by  the  Bulletin  early  in  1888  for 
having  supported  themselves  up  to  that  date."  A  few  seem  to  have 
followed  their  former  fellow  band  members  to  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve, 
and,  surreptitiously  shared  in  the  rations  given  to  their  friends  in 
Treaty  there."  None  appears  to  have  been  re-admitted  to  Treaty. 
Eventually,  most  of  them  migrated  to  the  North  East,  into  the  region 
near  Lac  la  Biche,  Beaver  Lake,  and  Kikino,  where  many  of  their 
descendants  can  be  found  today. 


"untitled  item,  Edmonton  Bulletin ,  April  7,  1888,  p.  1. 

"Names  of  discharged  members  of  Passpasschase ' s  Band  show  up 
periodically  in  the  Parish  Register  of  the  then  St.  John  the  Baptist 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve,  in  the  late  1880's. 
See  also,  many  such  reports  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol. 
3770,  File  33,711  passim. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  SURRENDER 


There  is  now  no  reason  why  this  reserve 
should  net  be  thrown  open  to  settlement 
at  an  early  date. 

— Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  24,  1886. 


108 


109 


Public  Arc  lily  es.  of  Canada,,  Indian  Affairs.  Records,  yol.  3768, 
File  42,010.  (Shaded  areas  indicate  land  sold  at  the  auction 
sales  of  1891  and  1893.) 


110 


The  withdrawal  from  Treaty  of  Chief  Passpasschase  and  the 
majority  of  his  followers  was  entirely  unexpected,  and  officials  of 
the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  were  quite  unprepared  to  deal  with 
the  consequences.  In  addition  to  the  problems  he  had  with  those  who 
had  been  granted  scrip  and  refused  to  be  evicted  from  their  homes  on 
the  reserve,  Indian  Agent  Anderson  was  faced  with  the  sullen  and  unco- 
operative  attitude  of  the  remnant  of  the  Passpasschase  Band.  The 
Indians  who  had  been  refused  discharges  from  Treaty  were  indignant, 
and  demonstrated  their  displeasure  by  killing  a  heifer  that  had  been 
loaned  to  the  band,1  and  by  wandering  about,  ostentatiously  refusing 
to  return  to  their  reserve  until  winter  had  set  in.2  When  the  annuity 
payments  were  made  on  September  30,  1886,  the  Agent  experienced  some 
difficulty  in  inducing  an  angry  few  to  accept  their  money. ^  Instead 
of  simplifying  the  administration  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  the 
granting  of  Metis  status  to  its  troublesome  leaders  only  magnified  the 
problems  faced  by  Indian  Affairs  officials,  and  created  more  resentment 
on  all  sides. 

But,  to  the  white  residents  of  the  town  of  Edmonton  in  general, 
and  to  the  editor  of  the  Edmonton  Bulletin  in  particular,  the  disint¬ 
egration  of  the  Indian  band  presented  a  splendid  opportunity  to  renew 
the  campaign  against  the  location  of  its  reserve.  No  sooner  had  Ins- 


ln Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  September  18,  1886,  p.  1. 

2 "Local,  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  7,  1886,  p.  1.  The  school 
on  the  Passpasschase  Reserve,  recently  opened  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
had  to  be  closed  for  this  reason.  W.  Anderson  to  the  Superintendent 
General,  November  23,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3763, 
File  32,476-2. 

3 "Local,"  Edirio n to n  Bullet .1. r. ,  October  2,  1886,  p.  4.  D.I.N.A., 


pector  Wadsworth  commenced  granting  discharges  to  Chief  Passpasschase 
and  his  family,  than  the  newspaper  triumphantly  announced  the  fact,  and 
emphatically  proclaimed  that  there  was  no  longer  any  reason  why  the 
reserve  should  not  be  thrown  open  to  settlement. ^  Two  weeks  later,  it 
returned  to  the  theme,  expressing  the  opinion  that: 

In  the  case  of  the  Two  Hills  band  south  of  Edmonton  and 
Michel's  band  at  the  west  end  of  Big  Lake,  where  the 
majority  have  taken  scrip  it  would  be  in  the  public  interest 
to  remove  the  Indians  who  remain  in  the  treaty  to  other 
reserves,  and  by  throwing  these  reserves  open  to  settlement 
at  once  allow  those  who  have  taken  scrip,  and  who  generally 
have  made  the  most  improvements,  to  remain  on  their  places 
and  enter  them  as  homesteads.  There  is  no  object  of  public 
benefit  to  be  attained  by  turning  out  the  men  who  have  made 
the  improvements  and  handing  over  the  result  of  their  labor 
to  those  who  were  too  lazy  to  do  anything  for  themselves, 
and  to  hold  the  whole  of  these  reserves  closed  to  settlement 
although  the  number  of  Indians  upon  them  has  been  so  greatly 
reduced;  while  if  they  are  thrown  open  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  men  who  made  the  improvements  should  not  hold  the 
claims  they  are  on  as  homesteads.  The  Edmonton  and  St. 

Albert  settlements  are  each  deeply  interested  in  one  or  the 
other  of  these  reserves.  Both  bands  were  notoriously  chiefly 
half-breeds  and  should  never  have  been  admitted  to  the 
treaty,  the  reserves  were  located  close  to  and  partly 
including  previous  settlement,  they  have  been  a  drawback  to 
both  settlements,  and  now  when  the  opportunity  occurs  by 
which  they  may  at  once  be  thrown  open  and  the  more  indus¬ 
trious  of  their  occupants  benefitted  thereby,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  government  will  for  once  take  a  commonsense 
view  of  the  case  and  by  throwing  open  these  reserves  confer 
a  double  benefit.* * * 5 


Annuity  Paysheets  for  1886  -  Passpasschase  Band.  Eighty- two  people 

were  paid  as  members  of  the  band. 

^ "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  July  24,  1886,  p.  4. 

5 "Treaty  vs.  Scrip,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  7,  1886,  p.  2. 


Such  views  were  not  to  be  found  in  the  press  alone.  During  the  ensuing 
winter,  both  the  Conservative  and  the  Liberal  candidates  for  Alberta's 
first  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  made  the  throwing  open  of  Indian 
reserves  near  towns  a  plank  in  their  respective  election  platforms.6 

Local  agitation  against  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  had  not  in¬ 
fluenced  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  in  the  past,  and  there  was 
little  probability  that  it  would  ever  pay  any  heed  to  the  views  of  such 
a  chronic  critic  as  the  Edmonton  Bulletin.  But,  when  officials  of  the 
Canadian  Government  suggested  that  reserves  should  be  opened  up  for 
settlement,  Indian  Affairs  was  compelled  to  take  notice.  As  the  Edmon¬ 
ton  newspaper  had  indicated,  half  of  the  membership  of  Michel's  Band, 
situated  immediately  to  the  west  of  St.  Albert,  had  withdrawn  from 
Treaty  in  1885  in  order  to  accept  scrip.  This  event  did  not  escape 
the  attention  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  which  was  responsible 
for  the  administration  of  Dominion  Lands  in  the  North  West.  Officials 
of  that  department  promptly  demanded  a  proportional  share  of  Michel's 
Reserve  equal  to  the  percentage  of  the  band  that  had  been  granted  half- 
breed  scrip;7  Interior's  argument  was  simply  that  the  recently  dis¬ 
charged  Metis  had  previously  received  compensation  for  their  aboriginal 
claims  in  reserve  lands;  they  had  then  received  compensation  once  more 
for  the  same  claims  in  the  form  of  scrip,  which  would  ultimately  be 

6D .  W.  Davis,  "To  the  Electors  of  the  Provincial  District  of 
Alberta,"  January  28,  1887,  in  Edmonton  Bulletin,  February  12,  1887, 
p.  1.  Dr.  J.  D.  Lafferty,  "To  the  Electors  of  the  District  of  Alberta," 
February  13,  1887,  in  Edmonton  Bulletin,  February  26,  1887,  p.  1. 

7W.  T.  R.  Street  to  the  Deputy  Minister  of  the  Interior, 

June  29,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3707,  File 
19,229-2. 


paid  for  out  of  Dominion  Lands.  The  department  contended  that  it 
was  quite  improper  to  compensate  these  individuals  twice.  It 
was  pointed  out  that  Michel's  Reserve  was  forty  square  miles 
in  area,  but  that  since  the  Half-Breed  Commission  had  done 
its  work,  the  population  had  plummetted  to  less  than  one 
hundred  persons — not  enough  to  justify  twenty  square  miles 
under  the  terms  of  Treaty  Six.* * 3 * * 

The  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs,  Lawrence 

Vankoughnet,  was  willing  to  listen  to  the-  Department  of  the  Interior's 

argument,  but  was  inclined  to  think  that  the  Indians  should  be  treated 

more  generously.  In  presenting  the  question  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald, 

in  January  of  1886,  Vankoughnet  declared: 

.  .  .  considering  the  immense  tracts  of  country  they  have 
surrendered  for  a  comparatively  trifling  consideration  it 
would  not  be  too'  much  to  allow  them  to  retain  the  whole 
of  the  land  given  to  them  as  Reserves  when  the  Treaties 
were  made  on  the  understanding  that  the  surplus  land 
should  be  surrendered  by  them  and  sold  and  the  proceeds 
thereof  invested  for  their  benefit. 9 

The  Deputy  Superintendent  General ' s  suggestion  did  not  directly  answer 

the  question  raised  by  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  but  it  did  seem 

designed  to  meet  the  objections  against  large  blocks  of  land  being 

withheld  from  productive  use  by  a  very  few  Indians. 


3 Ibid.  L.  Vankoughnet  memorandum  to  Sir  John  A.  .Macdonald, 
January  22,  1886,  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol .  3729,  File 

26,137.  Of  course  the  argument  that  the  size  of  a  reserve  should  be 
reduced  because  of  a  decline  in  population  was  not  justified  by  the 
wording  of  the  Treaty,  or  of  the  Indian  Act. 

3L.  Vankoughnet  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  January  22,  1886, 

P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137.  Emphasis 

added. 


reaction  to  this  proposal  was  much  more 


The  Prime  Minister's10 
favourable  than  Vankoughnet  could  have  anticipated.  In  the  sale  of 
"surplus"  lands,  Macdonald  saw  not  just  the  means  to  quiet  an  incon¬ 
sequential  agitation  in  a  small  western  settlement,  but  also  a  possible 
escape  from  the  substantial  financial  burden  that  the  administration 
of  Indian  Affairs  had  imposed  upon  the  Federal  Government.  He  reasoned 
that  by  selling  the  lands  and  funding  the  proceeds  for  the  benefit  of 
the  band,  a  source  of  capital  would  be  established  from  which  the  needs 
of  the  Indians  could  be  supplied.  "In  this  way  the  Public  Treasury 
would  be  pro  tanto  relieved,  from  the  Cost  of  any  articles  furnished  as 
benefits  Conferred  Beyond  the  Treaty  obligations."11  Clearly,  Mac¬ 
donald  envisaged  that  Vankoughnet ' s  suggestion  should  be  applied  to 
other  reserves  besides  Michel's,  and,  indeed,  even  to  those  that  had 
not  been  affected  by  the  operations  of  the  Half-Breed  Scrip  Commission. 
In  the  week  following  the  Prime  Minister's  decision,  Indian  Commissioner 
Edgar  Dewdney  was  ordered  to  allot  to  each  individual  Indian  on  every 
reserve  the  land  he  would  likely  require  for  cultivation,  so  that  the 
amount  of  surplus  land,  available  for  surrender  and  sale,  could  be 
ascertained.  Dewdney  replied  that  he  was  attempting  to  locate  indi- 

10 Macdonald  also  held  the  position  of  Superintendent  General 
of  Indian  Affairs. 

^L.  Vankoughnet  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  January  22,  1886 — 
Marginal  notation  by  J.  A.  Macdonald,  January  23,  1836,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

12L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  January  28,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 


vidual  families  on  separate  plots  of  land  on  the  various  reserves,  but 
chat  the  process  would,  necessarily,  be  a  long  one.-* *-3  By  the  Commis¬ 
sioner's  reckoning,  the  date  at  which  reserve  lands  could  be  declared 
surplus  was  many  years  away. 

Macdonald's  suggestion  was  received  very  coolly  in  another 
quarter.  It  was  perhaps  realized  that  the  great  majority  of  Indian 
bands  would  not  consider  any  of  their  lands  to  be  "surplus,"  nor  be 
willing  to  part  with  them  for  the  mere  purpose  of  reducing  the  budget 
of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs.  Vankoughnet  wrote  the  Deputy 
Minister  of  Justice  to  ask  whether  reserve  lands,  occupied  by  a  band 
which  had  lost  a  portion  of  its  population  because  some  of  its  members 
had  elected  to  take  half-breed  scrip,  might  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of 
the  remnant  of  the  band  without  a  surrender.  The  answer  was  un¬ 

equivocal.  Under  the  terms  of  the  Indian  Act,  the  Deputy  Minister  of 
Justice  declared,  "it  will  be  necessary  to  procure  the  formal  surrender 
of  the  lands  before  they  can  be  sold."*-’  Upon  the  receipt  of  this 
legal  opinion,  the  enthusiasm  in  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  for 
the  sale  of  "surplus"  lands,  quickly  dissipated.  Michel's  Band  was 
not  asked  to  make  a  substantial  surrender  until  1903. 16  Even  if  it 
had  been  implemented,  however,  the  scheme  had  no  prospect  of  success. 

*°E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  February  4,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

*^L.  Vankoughnet  to  Geo.  W.  Burbridge,  February  3,  1886, 

P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

*JGeo.  W.  Burbridge  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General, 

March  10,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

*  3For  details  of  this  and  a  subsequent  surrender  in  1906,  see 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  6667,  File  110A-4-1,  passim.  An 


116 


As  the  Department  of  the  Interior  was  to  point  out,  there  was  an  abund¬ 
ance  of  free  homestead  land  still  available  in  the  North  West  Terri¬ 
tories.  Under  such  conditions,  there  was  little  probability  that 
Indian  reserve  lands  could  command  the  prices  necessary  to  realize 
Macdonald's  goal.  Nevertheless,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  policy  of 
promoting  land  surrenders  that  was  to  be  implemented  by  Frank  Oliver 
after  1905,  had  been  considered  by  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  two  decades 
earlier . 

While  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  may  have  considered  that 
the  matter  of  "surplus"  reserve  lands  was  closed,  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  believed  otherwise.  As  we  have  seen,  the  large  exodus  from 
the  Michel  Band  in  1885  was  followed  by  an  equally  large  withdrawal 
from  the  Passpasschase  Band  in  1886.  William  Pearce,  a  Superintendent 
in  the  Dominion  Lands  Branch,  seized  upon  this  example  to  make  the  case 
for  his  department  once  more.  He,  like  the  Edmonton  Bulletin,  suggested 
that  the  remaining  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  who  had  been 
prevented  from  withdrawing  from  Treaty,  should  be  amalgamated  with 
another  band  in  the  Edmonton  Agency,  and  their  reserve  should  be  thrown 
open  for  settlement.  Again,  following  the  Bulletin ' s  lead,  he  declared 
that  if  this  were  done,  the  discharged  Metis  could  enter  for  their 
former  farms  as  homesteads.  In  a  significant,  if  unintentional, 
comment  on  the  utter  bankruptcy  of  the  Metis  scrip  programme,  Pearce 


attempt  was  made  to  take  a  small  surrender  during  the  1890's.  On  that 
occasion,  however,  the  issue  was  not  one  of  "surplus"  lands,  but 
rather  a  dispute  involving  a  squatter  who  had  occupied  a  small  parcel 
on  the  reserve  since  approximately  1880,  the  year  in  which  the  reserve 
was  surveyed.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vcl.  3707,  File 
19,229-2  passim. 


further  alleged  that  if  the  recipients  of  scrip  were  not  permitted  to 
follow  his  suggestion  they  would  have  little  hope  of  surviving  the 
winter  without  charitable  assistance.  Hardly  a  month  had  passed  since 
the  Half-Breed  Commission  had  begun  to  issue  the  scrip  certificates  at 
Edmonton,  and  it  was  already  apparent  that  all  the  money  that  the 
former  Indians  had  received  would  soon  be  gone.  To  bolster  his  argu¬ 
ment,  the  Superintendent  of  Dominion  Lands  declared  that  if  the  houses, 
cultivated  land,  and  other  improvements  made  by  the  former  members  of 
the  Passpasschase  Band  were  not  maintained,  the  farms  would  quickly 
grow  up  in  weeds,  and  the  improvements  fall  into  disrepair,  becoming  a 
liability  rather  than  an  asset  to  future  use.  To  those  who  would 
recommend  the  sale  of  the  land,  he  pointed  out  that  such  a  course  would 
be  impractical,  since  there  were  plenty  of  vacant  sections  open  for 
homestead  entry  in  the  vicinity,  which  could  be  taken  up  by  intending 
settlers  at  a  nominal  cost.17 

The  Secretary  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  gladly  passed 
Pearce's  views  on  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian 
Affairs.18  When  this  provoked  no  immediate  response,  the  Deputy 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  A.  M.  Burgess,  wrote  to  reiterate  his  depart¬ 
ment's  arguments,  and  added  that  if  the  land  were  not  soon  disposed  of, 
it  would  likely  be  occupied  by  squatters.19  Vankoughnet  would  only 

17Wm.  Pearce  to  H.  H.  Smith,  August  26,  1886,  P.A.C.,  Interior 
Records,  Vol.  409,  File  105,940. 

18John  R.  Hall  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  October  5,  1886,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

1<3A.  M.  Burgess  to  L.  Vankoughnet,  March  4,  1887,  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 


118 


reply  that  the  land  could  not  be  alienated  without  the  consent  of  the 
Passpasschase  Band.20  Indian  Affairs  was  determined  to  manage  the  dis¬ 
position  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  without  interference  from  any 
other  department. 

In  view  of  the  apparent  decision  not  to  pursue  the  surrender 
of  lands  from  Michel's  Reserve,  it  is  probable  that  the  Passpasschase 
Reserve  would  have  survived  at  least  until  the  election  of  the  Laurier 
Government  in  1896,  had  not  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  received 
an  initiative  which  purported  to  originate  from  the  Indians  themselves. 
On  December  30,  1886,  Indian  Agent  Anderson  reported  that  the  remnant 
of  the  band  had  asked  to  be  permitted  to  join  the  followers  of  Chief 
Enoch  Lapotac  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve.  The  alleged  reason  for  this 
unusual  request  was  that  there  were  too  few  able-bodied  men  left  in 
Treaty  to  farm  their  large  reserve  to  any  advantage.  The  Agent  also 
reported  that  the  members  of  Enoch's  Band  had  requested  certain  farm 
implements,  all  of  which,  not  coincidently ,  happened  to  be  in  the  poss¬ 
ession  of  the  much  depleted  Passpasschase  Band.  Presumably  in  order  to 
obtain  these  implements,  the  residents  of  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve  had 
supposedly  requested  that  the  Passpasschase  remnant  be  amalgamated  into 
their  band.  Anderson  strongly  urged  that  the  government  agree  to  these 
petitions. 2 1 

20L.  Vankoughnet.  to  A.  M.  Burgess,  March  12,  1887,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

21W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  December  30,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3773,  File  36,440. 


119 


The  authenticity,  or,  at  the  very  least,  the  spontaneity  of 
these  requests  may  be  seriously  questioned.  The  Agent  claimed  that 
they  had  been  made  at  the  time  of  the  annuity  payments  at  the  end  of 
September.  Yet  he  did  not  bother  to  communicate  them  to  his  superiors 
until  late  December,  fully  three  months  later.  Furthermore,  Anderson's 
suggestion  for  the  disposition  of  the  land  was  identical  to  that  of 
the  Edmonton  Bulletin  and  of  William  Pearce — the  land  should  be  thrown 
open  for  settlement,  and  the  discharged  members  of  the  band  allowed  to 
take  up  their  former  farms  as  homesteads.  In  making  this  proposal 
the  Agent  was  not  simply  echoing  the  common  feelings  of  the  white 
population  of  Edmonton,  nor  was  he  stirred  by  any  charitable  impulse 
towards  those  who  had  squandered  the  proceeds  of  their  scrip.  Chief 
Passpasschase,  his  brothers,  and  the  others  who  had  withdrawn  from 
Treaty  had  not  left  their  homes,  and,  if  the  reserve  was  to  retain  its 
official  status,  it  would  be  Anderson's  task  to  evict  them.  -He  made  it 
quite  apparent  that  he  had  no  desire  for  a  confrontation  with  Tahkocts 
'The  Murderer',  and  others  of  that  ilk,  over  such  an  issue.  ° 

In  spite  of  the  obvious  personal  stake  which  Anderson  had  in 
the  amalgamation  scheme,  there  was  some  truth  in  the  reasons  advanced 
for  it.  Few  men  were  left  in  the  band  after  the  issue  of  half-breed 
scrip.  At  the  time  of  the  1886  annuity  payments,  there  had  only  been 
ten  adult  males  out  of  a  total  population  of  eighty- two,  and  some  of 

2 2 Ibid. 

23 


Ibid. 


those  were  doubtless  old  or  infirm.  It  would  be  many  years  before  a 
group  of  that  size  could  begin  to  use  even  a  significant  portion  of  the 
agricultural  potential  of  their  forty  square  mile  tract.  And  there  was 
little  doubt  that  the  remnant  could  be  readily  absorbed  into  Enoch’s 
Band.  Many  of  the  followers  of  Chief  Enoch  had  been  associated  with 
the  Passpasschase  Band  in  the  years  preceding  the  Rebellion,  and, 
conversely,  many  of  Passpasschase ’ s  people  had  resided  on  the  Stony 
Plain  Reserve  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  in  the  past. 

But  the  previous  close  intermingling  of  the  two  bands  was  one 
of  the  factors  which  detracted  from  the  credibility  of  the  supposed 
request  to  amalgamate  with  Enoch's  Band.  If  the  Treaty  remnant  of 
Passpasschase ' s  Band  had  truly  desired  to  move  to  Stony  Plain,  they 
would  simply  have  left  and  taken  up  residence  beside  Enoch’s  people, 
without  asking  the  permission  of  the  Agent.  This  was  what  had  happened 
in  the  past,  and  although  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  was  opposed 
to  such  migrations,  it  had  previously  been  unable  to  prevent  them.25 


2Vi  .N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1886  -  Passpasschase  Band. 

25Anyone  who  has  examined  the  Annuity  Paysheets  for  the  period 
between  1876  and  1890  will  be  forced  to  agree  that  Indian  families 
moved  from  band  to  band  with  ease,  in  spite  of  a  definite  prohibition 
against  such  transfers.  The  most  dramatic  case  concerns  the  Cumberland 
Band  of  Fort  a  la  Corne.  In  the  face  of  an  absolute  refusal  by  the 
Department  of  Indian  Affairs  to  countenance  a  transfer  by  a  substantial 
number  of  Indians  from  Cumberland  House  to  the  James  Smith  Band  at 
Fort  a  la  Corne,  the  Indians  moved,  and  the  Department  was  eventually 
compelled  to  establish  a  separate  reserve  for  them  adjacent  to  James 
Smith’s.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3555,  File  10, 
passim.  In  the  case  of  Enoch's  Band,  the  great  majority  of  its  1886 
membership  had,  at  one  time  or  another,  been  considered  to  be  members 
of  other  bands,  including  a  large  number  who  had  formerly  resided  on 

the  Passpasschase  Reserve.  D.I.N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1880  to 

1886  -  Enoch  (or  Tommy)  Lapotac2 * *  5 s  Band. 


Only  a  handful  had  taken  this  course  between  the  dates  of  the 
annuity  payments,  in  1885  and  1386. The  remainder  of  the  band  was  to 
prove  reluctant  to  move  in  the  spring  of  1887 ,  and  while  Agent  Ander¬ 
son  continued  to  refer  to  the  band's  "request"  to  be  transferred, 27 
most  others,  including  Inspector  Wadsworth,  and  the  Edmonton  Bulletin, 
spoke  of  efforts  to  "induce"  the  Indians  to  move.2® 

Nevertheless,  when  Assistant  Indian  Commissioner  Hayter  Reed 
reviewed  the  alleged  appeal  by  the  remnant  of  the  Passpasschase  Band 
to  be  permitted  to  move  to  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve,  he  apparently 
regarded  the  request  as  genuine,  and  passed  it  on  to  the  Superintendent 
General  in  Ottawa.  The  Assistant  Commissioner  expressed  his  opinion 
that  such  an  amalgamation  of  the  two  bands  would  be  in  the  best 
interests  of  all  the  Indians  concerned,  but  warned  that  the  people  of 
Edmonton  would  certainly  expect  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  to  be  thrown 

O  Q 

open  for  settlement  as  soon  as  it  was  abandoned.  The  Deputy  Super- 


2^The  families  of  the  Pound,  and  Youkooiskass ,  and  an  orphan 
girl  named  Bella,  (five  persons  in  all) ,  transferred  from  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  to  Enoch's  Band  between  the  1885  and  the  1886  annuity  pay¬ 
ments,  without  the  formal  consent  of  the  Department.  D.I.N.A.,  Annuity 
Paysheets  for  1886  -  Enoch's  Band. 

o  7 

W.  Anderson,  report  to  the  Superintendent  General,  [June  30], 
1887,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1888,  Vol.  XXI,  (No.  15),  p.  104. 

28 

T.  P.  Wadsworth  to  the  Superintendent  General,  October  20, 
1887,  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1888,  Vol.  XXI,  (No.  15),  p.  143. 
"Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  23,  1887,  p.  1. 

2 'Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  January  15,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3773,  File  36,440. 


122 


intendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs33  displayed  little  concern  about 
the  probable  reaction  of  the  citizens  of  Edmonton,  and  offered  no 
objection  to  the  union  of  the  two  Indian  groups.  What  he  did  insist 
upon,  was  that  before  the  remnant  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  left  the 
reserve,  they  be  required  to  formally  surrender  their  land  to  the 
Crown,  so  that  it  could  be  sold  for  their  benefit.  Vankoughnet  was 
also  more  skeptical  of  the  authenticity  of  the  alleged  request  for  an 
amalgamation  than  Reed  had  been.  In  a  carefully  worded  letter  to  the 
Indian  Commissioner,  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  explicitly 
directed  that  "Passpasschase 's  Band  should  not  be  removed  from  their 
Reserve  except  with  their  consent."31  In  view  of  the  general  feeling 
in  the  town  of  Edmonton,  this  warning  against  coercive  measures  was 
timely. 

For  people  who  had  asked  permission  to  move  to  a  new  location, 
the  Treaty  Indians  resident  on  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  seemed  un¬ 
usually  reluctant  to  leave  their  homes.  Apparently,  Commissioner 
Dewdney  did  not  pass  Vankoughnet 1 s  instructions  on  to  Anderson,  who 
renewed  his  efforts  to  promote  an  amalgamation  in  the  spring  of  1887. 
The  Edmonton  Bulletin  reported  that  one  influential  member  of  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  remnant  who  had  previously  agreed  with  the  Indian  Agent  to 
try  to  persuade  his  friends  to  remove  to  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve  on 

o  n 

u  '■'Vankoughnet  answered  most  of  the  mail  addressed  to  the 
Superintendent  General,  and  made  decisions  on  all  but  the  most 
important  matters. 

3 1L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  January  24,  1887,  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Voi.  3773,  File  36,440.  On  the  draft  of  this 
letter,  Vankoughnet  had  begun  to  write  that  "Passpasschase  Band  should 
not  be  allowed  to  leave,"  and  then  had  struck  out  the  last  three  words 
and  replaced  them  with  "removed  from." 


123 


the  hope  of  being  elected  Chief  of  the  united  bands,  had  reassessed 
his  political  prospects  curing  the  winter,  and  decided  to  oppose  any 
move.32  The  authenticity  of  this  report  is  somewhat  suspect,33  but, 
for  whatever  reason,  Anderson's  efforts  were  not  successful. 

But  what  the  local  Indian  Agent  was  not  able  to  accomplish, 
the  Assistant  Indian  Commissioner  did  with  little  difficulty.  Hayter 
Reed  visited  the  Edmonton  Agency  in  August  of  1887,  and  met  with  both 
the  current  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  and  those  who  had  with¬ 
drawn  from  Treaty  in  the  previous  year.  He  saw  his  major  task  as  the 
eviction  of  the  former  Indians,  who,  in  spite  of  their  previous  pro¬ 
mises,  had  not  left  their  homes.34  It  is  said  that  an  influenza  epi¬ 
demic  had  visited  the  people  on  the  reserve  just  prior  to  Reed's 
arrival,35  and  this  had  put  them  in  an  agreeable  frame  of  mind.  The 


32"Local,'’  Edmonton  Bulletin,  April  23,  1887,  p.  1. 

33It  is  true  that  Enoch  Lapotac  had  resigned  his  post  as  Chief 
of  Enoch's  Band  in  the  autumn  of  1886,  and  the  vacancy  had  not  been 
filled.  However,  Agent  Anderson  had  recommended  that  no  one  be 
appointed  to  fill  the  vacancy,  and  Assistant  Commissioner  Reed  had 
heartily  endorsed  Anderson's  view.  Officials  of  the  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs  had  adopted  the  policy  of  discouraging  the  election  of 
chiefs,  whom  they  regarded  as  a  negative  influence  on  the  progress  of 
the  Indians.  (W.  Anderson  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  December  30, 

1886  and  Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  January  15,  1887, 
both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3773,  File  36,440.)  It 
is,  however,  quite  possible  that  a  member  of  the  Passpasschase  Band, 
unaware  of  Anderson's  recommendation,  and  of  the  Department's  general 
policy,  could  have  calculated  upon  being  elected  to  the  chieftainship 
without  any  encouragement  from  the  Indian  Agent. 

34Hayter  Reed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner ,  August  18,  1887,  and 
same  to  same,  August  22,  1887,  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 
Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

q  r 

0w,This  story  was  related  to  me  informally  by  some  of  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  Enoch's  Band  (notably  Lawrence  Morin)  in  1973.  They  had  been 
told  this  by  "Big  Louis,”  (Louis  Mary  Ann  on  the  Annuity  Paysheets), 
now  deceased,  who  had  lived  on  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  as  a  young  man. 


124 


Assistant  Commissioner  gave  no  details  of  what  means  he  used  to  effect 
the  removal,  but  they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  coercive.36  He  merely 
reported  that  "the  Indians  of  Pahpastoo's  band — that  is,  those  who  were 
living  on  the  Reserve — agreed  with  me  to  leave  the  Reserve  and  join 
Enoch's  band."37  No  attempt  was  made  to  follow  Vankoughnet 1  s  ins¬ 
tructions  and  obtain  a  surrender  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  before 
it  was  abandoned.  With  the  discharged  Metis  still  residing  on  the 
reserve,  and  intermingling  with  the  Treaty  Indians,  any  attempt  to  take 
such  a  surrender  would  almost  certainly  have  failed.  The  Assistant 
Commissioner  doubtless  regarded  his  primary  task  to  be  the  eviction  of 
the  discharged  Metis  from  the  reserve.  By  persuading  the  remnant  of 
the  band  to  move  to  Stony  Plain,  Reed  placed  himself  in  a  stronger 
position  in  his  dealings  with  the  former  chief  and  the  others  who  had 
received  scrip,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  was  able  to  effect  their  depart¬ 
ure.  Reed  likely  considered  his  failure  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the 
Passpasschase  remnant  to  the  sale  of  their  reserve  to  be  of  little 
consequence.  He  had  not  been  given  the  necessary  formal  authorization 
to  take  a  surrender,  and  it  would  have  been  several  days  before  a 


O  C 

°  The  Edmonton  Bulletin  reported  that  one  man  refused  to  leave 
the  reserve,  and  stayed  behind  after  the  others  had  left.  Yet  Reed 
expressed  no  concern  about  this  indivudual,  nor  did  he  recommend  any 
measures  to  get  him  to  leave.  The  Indian  does  not  seem  to  have 
remained  on  the  reserve  for  long  after  his  neighbours  had  left,  but  the 
Assistant  Commissioner's  lack  of  concern  does  not  suggest  that  he  was 
prepared  to  coerce  the  Indians  into  abandoning  the  reserve.  "Local," 
Edmonton  Bulletin,  August  13,  18S7,  p.  1. 

37Hayter  Reed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  August  22,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 


125 


letter  of  authority  and  the  regular  surrender  forms  would  reach  him, 
had  he  suggested  it.  Undoubtedly,  the  Assistant  Commissioner  believed 
that  there  would  be  little  difficulty  in  attending  to  the  formalities 
at  a  later  date.  But  there  were  factors  which  he  did  not  consider, 
which  would  complicate  the  problem,  from  both  a  legal  and  a  practical 
viewpoint. 

The  remaining  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  abandoned  their 
reserve  on  August  12,  1887,  and  journeyed  to  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve, 
just  three  or  four  miles  away,  across  the  North  Saskatchewan  River. 

Most  remained  there,  but  a . few  drifted  away  to  join  other  bands,  and 
became  more  difficult  to  locate  as  time  passed.  Two  months  after  the 
move,  the  Treaty  annuity  payments  were  made  at  the  Edmonton  Agency. 
Since  the  Passpasschase  Indians  were  no  longer  residing  on  their 
reserve,  they  were  not  treated  as  a  separate  entity.  Rather,  they 
were  paid  as  members  of  the  bands  on  whose  reserves  they  happened  to 
be  residing.  As  the  individual  families  were  given  their  per  capita 

a  p 

Treaty  payments  and  assigned  new  Treaty  numbers  with  other  bands, 
the  entity  of  the  "Passpasschase  Band"  vanished  from  the  annuity  pay¬ 
sheets  of  one  Department  of  Indian  Affairs.  The  implications  of  this 
action  were  not  considered,  but  the  Indian  Act  had  defined  a  "band" 
as : 

.  .  .  any  tribe,  band  or  body  of  Indians  who  own  or 
are  interested  in  a  reserve  or  in  Indian  lands  in 
common,  of  which  the  legal  title  is  vested  in  the 

3®In  order  to  prevent  any  Indian  family  from  receiving 
annuities  twice  in  a  given  year,  each  was  given  a  ticket,  with  its 
band  name,  and  an  individual  family  number  on  it.  The  head  of  the 
family  would  have  to  present  this  ticket  annually  before  receiving 
his  annuities,  and  the  fact  that  the  money  had  been  paid  would  be 


126 


Crown,  or  who  share  alike  in  the  distribution  of  any 

annuities  or  interest  moneys  for  which  the  Government 

q  o 

of  Canada  is  responsible.  .  .  . 

Of  course,  it  could  not  be  argued  that  the  Passpasschase  Band  had  been 
eradicated  as  a  legal  entity  by  the  simple  action  of  placing  the  names 
of  its  members  on  the  annuity  paysheets  of  other  bands .  What  was 
brought  into  question,  however,  was  the  certitude  of  just  which  indi¬ 
viduals  were  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  and  which  were  not. 

The  composition  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  had  always  been  relatively 
unstable.  Families  had  been  continually  entering  and  leaving  the  band 
since  it  had  adhered  to  Treaty  a  decade  earlier.  As  long  as  its  people 
were  living  on  their  reserve,  and  receiving  their  annual  Treaty  pay¬ 
ments  as  a  distinct  unit,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  ascertaining  who 
the  members  of  the  band  were.  But,  after  the  fall  of  1887,  there  was 
no  one  living  on  the  reserve,  and  no  group  being  paid  annuities  in 
common  for  the  band.  There  were,  thus,  no  grounds  upon  which  one  could 
assert  that  the  people  wTho  had  moved  to  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve  in 
August  of  1887  had  any  more  right  to  be  considered  members  of  the 
Passpasschase  Band  than  those  who  had  wandered  away  and  joined  other 
bands  in  previous  years .  The  number  of  people  who  might  claim  a  right 
to  be  consulted  about  a  surrender  and  to  share  in  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  of  the  land  was  thus  expanded  enormously.  The  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  ever  considered  the 
implications  of  its  actions  in  this  regard. 


noted  beside  the  family's  name  and  number  on  the  annuity  paysheets. 

35Canada,  The  Indian  Act  (1886)  ,  49  Vic.,  Cap,  43,  Sec.  2. 


127 


In  fact,  there  was  to  be  very  little  consideration  of  any  of 
the  aspects  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  surrender.  Quite  evidently, 
officials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  considered  the  matter  to 
be  an  insignificant  formality,  and  their  actions  displayed  this  care¬ 
less  attitude.  A  week  after  Hayter  Reed  had  reported  that  the  reserve 
had  been  abandoned,  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  had  authorized 
Commissioner  Dewdney  to  take  a  formal  surrender.4*^  Since  the  Com¬ 
missioner  did  not  find  it  convenient  to  attend  to  the  matter,  he  dele¬ 
gated  the  task  to  the  new  Indian  Agent  at  Edmonton,  Major  William 
Carnegie  de  Balinhard.41  This  procedure  was  considered  improper  under 
the  terms  of  the  Indian  Act,  and  Vankoughnet  was  compelled  to  issue  a 
separate  authorization  and  new  instructions  to  de  Balinhard.  The 
Edmonton  Agent  was  told  to 

Cause  a  meeting  of  the  voting  members  of  the  said 
Papastayo's  Band  to  be  convened  in  accordance  with 
the  usual  custom  for  calling  such  meeting,  at  such 
time  and  place  as  may  to  you  seem  most  convenient, 
and  bring  before  them  for  consideration,  the  question 
of  surrendering  the  land  within  the  said  Reserve  to  be 
disposed  of  for  their  benefit.  .  .  . 

Should  a  majority  of  the  voting  members  of  the 
Papastayc ’ s  Band  be  in  favour  of  the  surrender  of  the 


4^L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  August  29,  1887,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

41De  Balinhard,  an  old  Army  officer  from  England,  had  formerly 
served  as  Agent  on  the  Sarcee  Reserve  near  Calgary.  Anderson  had  been 
taken  seriously  ill,  and  de  Balinhard  who  was  transferred  north  for 
temporary  duty,  was  eventually  called  on  to  stay.  Anderson  was  very 
slow  to  recover,  and  was  finally  transferred  to  Regina,  where  he  was 
given  an  office  job.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3733, 
File  26,743;  Vol.  3712,  File  20,523;  and  Vol.  3746,  File  29,628-1  for 
the  personnel  files  of  these  two  officials.  For  Dewdney ' s  actions  in 
delegating  de  Balinhard  to  take  the  surrender,  see  E.  Dewdney  to 
W.  C.  de  Balinhard,  September  20,  1887,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 
Vol.  3582,  File  1023*. 


same  on  the  above  terms,  you  may  take  a  formal 
surrender  thereof  from  them. 42 

These  instructions  must  have  caused  some  confusion  in  de  Balinhard's 
mind.  It  is  rather  unlikely  that  there  was  any  "usual  custom"  for 
the  calling  of  meetings  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  and,  if  there  was, 
it  is  even  less  likely  that  the  new  Agent  would  be  aware  of  it.  Fur¬ 
thermore,  by  the  time  these  instructions  were  received,  the  annuity 
payments  had  been  made,43  and  the  question  of  just  who  ought  to  be 
considered  a  member  of  the  band  had  been  greatly  complicated. 

But  the  uncertainty  that  de  Balinhard  may  have  felt  over  these 
issues  could  hardly  justify  his  delay  in  attending  to  the  matter.  The 
instructions,  issued  on  September  30,  1887,  were  not  acted  upon  until 
November  19,  1888,  and  the  completed  surrender  was  not  forwarded  to 
Ottawa  until  August  30,  1889. 44  The  Agent  explained  the  delay  by 
claiming  that  the  men  of  the  band  could  not  be  found.  On  November  15, 
1887,  he  declared  that  there  were  only  two  adult  males  from  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  Band  left  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve,  and  that  one  of  those 
was  away  on  a  hunt.45  Yet,  less  than  six  weeks  earlier  he  had  paid 
annuities  to  ten  men  with  Enoch’s  Band  who  had  just  abandoned  the  Pass 

42L.  Vankoughnet  to  W.  C.  de  Balinhard,  September  30,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

43Enoch's  Band  was  paid  its  annuities  on  October  3,  1837. 
D.I.N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1887  -  Enoch’s  Band. 

44A.  S.  Forget  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General,  August  30 
1889,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  10231. 

45W.  C.  de  Balinhard  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  November  15, 
1887,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  10231. 


passchase  Reserve  in  August.  46  In  March  of  3.888,  he  revised  his 
accounting  of  the  number  of  Passpasschase ' s  people  living  with  Enoch's 
Band  to  three  men,  but  still  insisted  that  a  greater  number  were  to  be 
found  at  the  Bear's  Hills  Indian  Agency,  or  at  other  locations  unknown, 
and  that  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to  arrange  a  proper  meeting  of 
the  voting  membership  of  the  band.47  Assistant  Indian  Commissioner 
Hayter  Reed  replied  to  this  by  pointing  out  that  the  Indian  Act  only 
required  adult  males  living  "on  or  near"  their  reserve  to  be  consulted, 
and  implied  that  the  men  living  at  Bear's  Hills  or  more  distant  loca¬ 
tions  did  not  have  a  right,  to  participate  in  the  surrender  proceedings.48 
The  Edmonton  Agent  took  no  hint  from  this  suggestion,  however,  and  did 
not  attempt  to  call  the  Passpasschase  people  together  to  discuss  the 
matter,  even  when  he  personally  paid  annuities  to  eight  of  the  1886 

-  4  Q 

Passpasschase  Band  members  on  October  1  and  2,  1888.  3 


^b.i.n.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1887  -  Enoch's  Band.  In 
addition  to  these,  de  Balinhard  had  paid  annuities  to  another  man  now 
residing  on  Alexander's  Reserve,  who  had  been  listed  with  the  Passpass¬ 
chase  Band  at  the  1886  annuity  payments.  He  had  also  paid  annuities  to 
a  great  number  of  others  who  had  left  the  Passpasschase  Band  and  moved 
to  Stony  Plain  in  the  years  prior  to  1887. 

^7W.  C.  de  Balinhard  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  March  30,  1888, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  1023-| . 

48Hayter  Reed  to  W.  C.  de  Balinhard,  April  23,  1888,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  1023K  It  is  worthy  of  note, 
however,  that  on  other  occasions  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  was 
to  affirm  the  right  of  Indians  living  at  a  much  greater  distance  from 
their  former  reserve  to  participate  in  a  surrender  meeting.  An  example 
was . the  Sharphead  Reserve,  near  the  present  site  of  Ponoka,  which  was 
surrendered  by  former  band  members  living  at  Lake  Wabamun  in  18S7. 

See  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records y  Vol.  3S12,  File  111,777  passim. 

4 8D . I . N . A . ,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1883  -  Enoch's  and  Alexander's 


Bands . 


130 


De  Balinhard's  real  reason  for  lack  of  action  was  more  likely 
concerned  with  other  serious  problems  he  was  facing  as  a  new  Agent 
than  with  any  difficulty  in  physically  locating  a  proper  representation 
of  the  adult  males.  The  winter  of  1887-1888  was  a  moderately  severe 
one.  Game  was  more  scarce  than  usual,  and  the  weather  was  cold.  What 
was  of  greater  consequence,  the  bad  weather  and  a  series  of  accidents 
delayed  the  arrival  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs'  supplies  at 
Edmonton.  Rations  were  very  short,  and  the  Indians  were  hungry — 
starving,  some  said.  The  hardships  were  increased  by  the  surrepti¬ 
tious  feeding  of  those  who  had  been  discharged  from  Treaty  by  those 
Indians  receiving  rations  from  the  government.  The  worst  of  the 
suffering  was  over  by  the  end  of  January  when  the  overdue  provisions 
began  to  arrive  and  the  ration  issues  were  somewhat  increased. 

But  while  the  actual  hunger  diminished,  the  political  con¬ 
sequences  of  it  increased.  The  Edmonton  Bulletin,  ever  anxious  to  dis¬ 
credit  the  Conservative  administration,  began  to  publish  articles  on 
starving  Indians  in  February  of  1888.  The  stories  were  quickly  re¬ 
printed  by  Liberal  newspapers  across  the  country,  and  conditions  in 
the  Edmonton  Indian  Agency  became  a  national  scandal.  The  Indians, 
naturally  indignant  on  account  of  the  privations  they  had  been  forced 
to  endure,  found  themselves  possessed  of  a  public  audience  for  the 
first  time.  They  were  anxious  to  establish  than  they  had  a  right  to 
be  fed  when  in  want,  and  commenced  to  kill  their  band  cattle  when  their 
demands  were  not  quickly  met.  Exaggerations  and  misleading  statements 
were  engaged  in  by  both  Indians  and  the  Opposition  press,  and  these 
were  gleefully  seized  upon  and  exposed  by  government  officials  and 
their  partisans  in  the  fourth  estate  who  denied  that  there  were  any 


While  the  Indians  on  the  Stony 


grounds  for  complaint,  whatsoever.5^ 

Plain  Reserve  were  only  peripherally  involved  in  the  "starvation" 
controversy,  there  was  an  undercurrent  to  it,  of  which  they  were  at 
the  very  centre.  This  was  the  attempt  by  the  local  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  to  have  Agent  de  Balinhard  dismissed,  and  replaced  by  a  man 
of  their  faith. 

The  Catholics  had  long  been  dissatisfied  with  the  government's 
administration  of  Indian  Affairs  in  the  Edmonton  region — often  with 
good  reason.  They  had  been  disturbed  by  examples  of  Agent  William 
Anderson's  incompetence  and  mean-spiritedness  in  his  relations  with  the 
Indians,  and  frequently  asked  that  he  be  removed.5*  Moreover,  they 
were  convinced  that  he  possessed  anti-Catholic  biases,  and  favoured  the 
Protestant  denominations  in  the  conduct  of  the  Agency's  affairs.  While 
they  were  never  able  to  show  that  any  of  Anderson's  actions  had  dis¬ 
criminated  against  them,  it  would  appear  that  the  Agent  did  have  strong 


5^For  details  of  this  "starvation"  controversy  see  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3749,  File  46,205  passim  and  many  items 
in  the  Edmonton  Bulletin,  including  "Indians,"  February  4,  1888,  p.  3; 
untitled  item,  February  18,  1888,  p.  2;  "Indians,"  February  25,  1888, 
p.  3;  "Hungry  Indians,"  March  10,  1888,  p.  4;  untitled  item,  March  18, 
1888,  p.  1;  "Rations,"  March  24,  1888,  p.  4;  "Victoria,"  March  31,  1888 
p.  4;  untitled  item,  April  7,  1888,  p.  1;  untitled  item,  April  28,  1888 
p.  3;  "Those  Indians"  and  "The  Edmonton  Indians,"  May  5,  1888,  pp.  2 
and  3  respectively.  Also,  several  items  in  the  "Local"  column  in 
February,  March,  and  April,  1888. 

5iSee  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3673,  File  10,986 
passim,  and  L.  Vankoughnet  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  January  19,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  213,  No.  90524-90531.  But  Dewdney  in¬ 
sisted  that  Anderson  was  only  unpopular  because  he  was  careful  in 
following  his  instructions  and  never  did  things  on  his  own  responsi¬ 
bility.  The  Commissioner  thought  it  would  be  most  unfair  to  reprimand 
him.  See  E.  Dewdney  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  February  14,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Macdonald  Papers,  Vol.  213,  No.  90515-90520. 


132 


personal  prejudices  against  the  Catholic  Church.52  Such  prejudices, 
even  when  they  had  no  discernible  effect  on  the  interests  of  the 
Catholics ,  were  certain  to  be  general  knowledge  in  a  small  community 
like  Edmonton,  and  to  cause  a  much  greater  sense  of  grievance  than  was 
justified  by  the  facts. 

The  bitterness  reached  a  climax  when  the  Presbyterian  Church 
opened  a  school  and  mission  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve  in  late  1885. 

The  Catholics,  who  had  claimed  that  the  members  of  Enoch's  Band  were 
all  baptized  adherents  of  their  denomination,  were  very  alarmed,  and 
commenced  to  build  their  own  School  and  mission  in  an  attempt  to 
counteract  the  inf luence  of  their  sectarian  rivals.  An  outpouring  of 
charges  and  countercharges  followed,  with  each  denomination  accusing 
the  other  of  deception,  bribery,  and  intimidation  of  the  Indians.  The 
accusations  possessed  some  credibility,  for  the  statements  of  both 
sides  were  subscribed  to  by  many  of  the  same  Indians.  Anderson  was 
charged  with  favouring  the  Presbyterians.52 

Anderson's  successor,  de  Balinhard,  as  a  Protestant  fell  heir 
to  the  great  volume  of  bitterness  that  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  had 
built  up  against  his  predecessor.  While  there  appears  to  have  been 
little  or  no  reason  for  supposing  that  the  new  agent  was  guilty  of  preju- 

5  9 

^See,  for  example,  the  charges  of  Thomas  Risdale  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3788,  File  43,943.  While  Anderson  seems 
to  have  acted  quite  properly  in  firing  Risdale,  the  Agent  did  not 
bother  to  deny  that  he  had  made  the  statements  against  the  Catholic 
Church  of  which  he  had  been  accused. 

53P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3773,  File  35,457 

passim. 


dices  directed  particularly  against  the  Church  of  Rome 


54 


the  Catholic 


clergy  had  been  anticipating  that  a  man  of  their  faith  would  t»e 
appointed,  and  were  disheartened  when  this  did  not  come  to  pass.  The 
individual  who  had  been  nominated  as  Anderson's  successor  by  Bishop 
Grandin  and  the  Oblate  Order,  Samuel  Cunningham, 55  was  the  one  who  first 
brought  the  hungry  state  of  the  Edmonton  Agency  Indians  to  the  attention 
of  the  Edmonton  Bulletin56  and  there  were  many  hints  thrown  out  by 
certain  of  the  Catholic  priests  and  their  adherents  that  the  replace¬ 
ment  of  de  Balinhard  with  a  Catholic  Agent  would  put  a  quick  end  to 
the  charges  of  starvation  among  the  Edmonton  Indians.  ' 

The  Catholic  hierarchy  may  not  have  had  as  much  control  over 
the  complaints  of  hungry  Indians  as  either  itself  or  government  offi¬ 
cials  wished  to  believe,  but,  a  second  effort  to  outmanoeuvre  the  Pres¬ 
byterians  on  the  school  question  was  more  completely  under  their  guid¬ 
ance.  This  was  the  attempt  to  build  an  idyllic  Catholic  Indian  colony 


5 ^William  Carnegie  de  Balinhard  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a 
particularly  religious  man.  On  his  personnel  form  he  described  himself 
as  merely  "Protestant,"  rather  than  as  the  adherent  of  any  particular 
denomination.  It  is  unlikely  that  a  man  of  that  time  who  cared  very 
deeply  about  religion  would  not  have  been  a  member  of  one  particular 
denomination  or  another.  See  William  C.  de  Balinhard,  personal  infor¬ 
mation  form,  February  15,  1885,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol. 
3712,  File  20,523. 

55See  L.  Vankoughnet  to  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  January  18,  1886, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  1089  (Letterbook) ,  pp.  353-355. 

5®See  "Indians,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  February  4,  1888,  p.  3. 

57H.  S.  Young  to  [?],  February  25,  1888;  Hayter  Reed  to 
E.  Dewdney,  March  9,  1888;  Hayter  Reed,  telegram  to  E.  Dewdney, 

March  5,  1888;  all  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3794,  File 
46,205.  Hayter  Reed  to  E.  Dewdney,  April  6,  1888,  P.A.C.,  Macdonald 
Papers,  Vol.  327,  No.  147882-147889. 


on  Alexander's  Reserve  at  Riviere  Qui  Barre.  The  somewhat  naive 
vision  of  a  peaceful  and  contented  Indian  community,  governed  by  the 
clergy,  and  isolated  from  the  evil  and  destructive  aspects  of  Western 
Civilization,  had  antecedents  as  distant  as  the  Indian  reserves  estab¬ 
lished  in  Quebec  under  the  old  regime,  on  which  Bishop  Grandin's  scheme 
was  perhaps  modelled.  There  had  been,  and  were  to  be,  several  other 
attempts  to  establish  similar  colonies  throughout  the  North  West.59  In 
all  cases,  a  large  group  of  Indians  was  to  be  gathered  together  on  one 
reserve.  They  would  be  completely  isolated  from  any  white  man  not 
approved  of  by  the  clergy,  and  from  such  temptations  as  liquor.  The 
children  would  be  educated  from  a  young  age,  and  their  elders  taught  to 
farm.  The  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  would  be  expected  to  pay  the 
costs  of  such  an  experiment,  at  least  until  it  became  self-supporting, 
but  its  local  officers  would  be  subordinate  to  the  Catholic  clergy  in 
its  operation.  Within  a  generation,  it  was  hoped,  the  Indian  residents 
of  the  community  would  be  transformed  into  civilized  and  Christian 
people,  and  a  shining  witness  to  the  power  of  the  Catholic  faith.59 

However  appealing  certain  aspects  of  such  a  colony  might 
appear,  government  officials  were  generally  very  sceptical  about  these 
schemes.  Besides  the  political  impossibility  of  placing  government 

53Supra,  pp.  11-13.  An  example  of  a  similar  project  contem¬ 
poraneous  with  Grandin's,  was  the  attempt  to  establish  a  colony  at  Pine 
Creek  on  Lake  Winnipegcsis ;  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol. 
3574,  File  197  passim.  Other  examples  were  Father  Lacombe 1 s  attempt 
to  establish  a  Metis  colony  at  St.  Paul,  and  the  File  Hills  Colony  on 
the  Peepeekeesis  Reserve  of  the  File  Hills  Agency  in  Saskatchewan. 

5  9P . A.C . ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3574,  File  197  passim, 
and  other  material  re  the  Pine  Creek  Colony. 


135 


officials  under  the  direction  of  ecclesiastical  authorities,  there 
were  practical  arguments  against  the  proposals.  In  the  first  place, 
the  congregation  of  a  great  many  Indians  in  one  place,  and  regulations 
which  would  prevent  them  from  travelling  to  distant  locations  where 
contact  might  be  made  with  evil  influences,  would,  in  combination,  soon 
result  in  the  extinction  of  all  game  in  the  vicinity  of  the  colony,  and 
greatly  increase  the  expenditure  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Af fairs  on 
rations  of  food  and  clothing.  Furthermore,  there  was  little  likelihood 
that  the  chiefs,  headmen,  and  members  of  the  different  bands  would  live 
in  harmony  with  each  other >  particularly  when  they  were  of  different 
tribes  and  spoke  different  languages.  On  these  grounds,  government 
officials  usually  opposed  Catholic  proposals  for  large  Indian  colo- 
nies.60 

In  April  of  1888,  suggestions  began  to  be  heard  that  Alex¬ 
ander's,  Alexis's,  and  Enoch's,  (including  the  remnant  of  Passpass- 
chase's)  Bands  ought  to  be  amalgamated,  and  the  latter  two  moved  to 
Alexander's  Reserve  at  Riviere  Qui  Barre.  Alexander,  who  stood  to 
become  chief  of  this  new  large  band,  first  broached  the  idea  vaguely 
to  Assistant  Commissioner  Reed  in  early  April  while  that  official  was 
investigating  the  charges  of  starvation.61  Shortly  thereafter,  on 
April  19,  Mahminawatow,  accompanied  by  several  other  members  of  Enoch’s 
Eand,  presented  Agent  de  Balinhara  with  a  list  of  seventeen  heads  of 

6QIbid. 

6lHayter  Reed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  April  5,  1888, 

P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3796,  File  47,249. 


136 


families  resident  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve,  who,  it  was  said,  wished 
to  leave  their  then  homes  and  move  no  Alexander's  or  Michel's  Reserve. 
The  list  was  signed  by  Rev.  Father  C.  Tissier,  the  Oblate  priest  on 
the  reserve,  and  contained  the  names  of  two  men  who  had  just  moved  from 
the  Passpasschase  Reserve.62  The  Agent  doubted  that  half  of  those 
whose  names  were  on  the  list  would  actually  go,  but  that  all  who  were 
refused  permission  would  feel  aggrieved.  He  therefore  urged  the  Dep¬ 
artment  of  Indian  Affairs  to  give  its  leave  to  those  who  wished  to 
depart.66  His  superiors,  on  the  other  hand,  had  had  experiences  with 
the  division  of  Indian  bands  in  the  past,  and  refused  to  sanction  any 
such  movement.64  Bishop  Grandin  then  made  a  direct  appeal  to  Hayter 
Reed,  recently  appointed  Indian  Commissioner,  for  permission  to  unite 
Alexander's,  Enoch's,  and  Alexis's  people  at  Riviere  Qui  Barre,  where 
a  substantial  Catholic  colony  could  be  established.  Reed  suspected 
that  the  motive  behind  this  proposal  was  simply  to  remove  the  members 
of  Enoch's  Band  from  the  influence  of  the  Presbyterian  school  and 
mission,  and  recommended  against  it.65  The  Deputy  Superintendent 

62Nabesis  [Napasis]  and  Mikwen  [Antoine] .  These  two  later 
signed  the  Passpasschase  surrender.  For  the  list  see  C„  Tissier,  "List 
of  men  who  want  to  leave  Stony  Plain  .  .  n.d.  [April,  1S88] ,  in 

P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3770,  File  33,711. 

63W.  C.  de  Balinhard  to  the  Indian  Commissioner,  April  19, 

1888,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3770,  File  33,711. 

o4E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  May  4,  1888;  and 
L.  Vankoughnet* s  marginal  notes  thereon,  May  8,  1888,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3770,  File  33,711. 

65Hayuer  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  October  27,  1888, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3806,  File  52,332. 


General  of  Indian  Affairs,  Lawrence  Vankoughnet,  took  a  similar  view. 66 
Nevertheless,  efforts  to  induce  the  Indians  of  these  bands  to  support 
such  a  proposal  continued  to  have  an  unsettling  effect  for  some  time. 87 

With  these  controversies  swirling  around  him,  it  is  not  sur¬ 
prising  that  Major  de  Balinhard  found  little  time  to  deal  with  the 
surrender  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve.  But  such  other  pressures  can 
only  partially  explain  the  many  irregularities  in  the  surrender  that 
was  obtained.  On  November  15,  1888,  Indian  Agency  Inspector  Timothy  P. 
Wadsworth  arrived  in  Edmonton  to  begin  his  annual  tour  of  the  local 
Agency. 68  Although  the  Agent  had  not  taken  advantage  of  the  excellent 
opportunity  to  consult  with  the  former  residents  of  the  Passpasschase 
Reserve  afforded  by  the  1888  annuity  payments,  just  six  weeks  earlier, 
Wadsworth's  visit  apparently  brought  the  matter  of  the  disposition  of 
the  land  forcefully  to  de  Balinhard ’ s  attention.  Within  four  days  of 
the  Inspector's  arrival,  a  surrender  had  been  taken. 

The  surrender  instrument  that  was  signed  on  November  19,  1888, 
gave  evidence  of  great  carelessness  and  haste.  The  forms  which  had 
been  transmitted  to  de  Balinhard  in  September  of  1887,  had  apparently 


88L.  Vankoughnet,  memorandum  to  E.  Dewdney,  November  12,  1888, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3806,  File  52,332. 

67In  January,  1889  Chief  Alexis  told  the  Agent  that  Alexander 
and  one  Father  Blanchette  had  threatened  that  the  government  would  cut 
off  all  rations  to  them  if  they  did  not  move  to  Riviere  Qui  Barre. 

Chief  Alexis  retorted  that  his  band  would  not  move,  and  was  not  always 
dependent  on  the  government's  rations,  as  was  Alexander's.  The  claim 
that  the  government  would  terminate  rations  if  the  band  would  not  move 
was,  of  course,  a  falsehood.  W.  C.  de  Balinhard  to  the  Indian  Com¬ 
missioner,  January  31,  1889,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3770, 
File  33,711. 

8 8 "Local,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  November  17,  1888,  p.  1 „ 


138 


been  drafted  for  use  in  the  more  settled  regions  of  Eastern  Canada. 
Alterations  would  have  been  necessary  no  make  them  applicable  to  the 
special  circumstances  of  the  Passpasschase  surrender.  The  blanks  were 
filled  by  Joseph  V.  Kildahl,  a  local  lawyer  whose  business  was  so  slow 

that  he  was  compelled  to  seek  temporary  employment  as  the  storeman  at 
6  9 

the  Indian  Agency,  and  many  of  the  necessary  changes  were  not  made. 

Know  all  Men  by  these  Presents, 

THAT  WE,  the  undersigned  Principal  men  of 
Passpasschase  Band  of  Indians  No.  1367^ 
resident  on  our  Reserve  near  Edmonton 
in  the  Province  of  Alberta.  .  .  . 71 

the  document  began,  although  the  members  of  the  band  had  not  been  resi¬ 
dent  on  their  reserve  for  more  than  fifteen  months,  and  "Province  of 
Alberta"  was  an  entity  more  than  sixteen  years  in  the  future.  It  went 
on  to  declare  that  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  was  being  surrendered  to 
the  Crown,  in  trust,  to  be  disposed  of  to  "such  person  or  persons  and 
upon  such  terms  as  the  Government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  may  deem 
most  conducive  to  our  welfare,  and  that  of  our  people."72  The  pro- 


c  q 

The  handwriting  for  the  insertions  is  that  of  Kildahl.  The 
Passpasschase  Band,  Surrender  Instrument,  November  19,  1888,  a  document 
in  the  possession  of  the  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs, 

Land  Registry  Office,  Ottawa.  For  Kildahl' s  position  in  the  Edmonton 
Indian  Agency,  see  Canada,  Parliament,  "Report  of  the  Auditor  General 
for  the  Year  Ending  June  30,  1889,"  in  Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for 
1890,  Vol.  XXIII  (No.  5),  p.  E-135. 

7  0 

No.  136  was  an  arbitrary  number  that  had  been  given  to  the 
band  and  its  reserve  in  the  early  1880's.  It  had  no  significance 
other  than  as  a  handy  means  of  identification. 

7 -^Passpasschase  Band,  Surrender  Instrument,  November  19,  1888. 

72Ibid. 


ceeds  from  the  "sale  or  lease"  of  the  land  were  to  be  funded,  and  the 
interest  was  to  be  paid  annually  or  semi-annually  to  the  members  of  the 
Passpasschase  Band.73  What  was  not  included  in  this  enumeration  of 
conditions  was  the  position  of  Enoch's  Band,  which  had  allowed  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  people  to  share  in  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve  lands.  As  early 
as  April  of  1887,  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  had  decided  that  the 
membership  of  Enoch's  Band  should  be  allowed  to  benefit  from  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve.74  Agent  de  Balinhard 
had  been  explicitly  instructed  to  explain  this  matter  to  the  former 
members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band.  J  Yet  the  surrender  instrument  made 
no  mention  of  this  very  significant  provision,  nor  did  it  indicate  that 
the  Treaty  membership  of  the  old  Passpasschase  Band  would  be  amalgamated 
with  Enoch's  Band,  as  had  been  intended.  Not  until  January  24,  1894, 
fully  five  years  after  the  surrender,  was  an  agreement  signed  by  two 
representatives  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  and  four  of  Enoch's,  which 
sanctioned  the  union  of  the  two  bands,  and  the  application  of  the  entire 
proceeds  from  the  sale  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  to  the  funds  of  the 
enlarged  Enoch's  Band.7b  Other,  less  significant,  conditions  were  also 

7 3 Ibid. 

74E.  Dewdney  to  the  Superintendent  General,  April  9,  1887; 

L.  Vankoughnet  to  E.  Dewdney,  April  22,  1887;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3773,  File  36,440. 

7 ^E.  Dewdney  to  the  Indian  Agent,  Edmonton,  September  20,  1887, 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  1023-K  L.  Vankoughnet 
to  W . . C .  de  Balinhard,  September  30,  1887,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010. 

/bWm.  Ward  et  al . ,  agreement,  January  24,  1894,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3582,  File  1023^.  The  legal  effect  of  this 
agreement  is  unclear.  There  was  no  provision  in  the  Indian  Act  for 
such  an  amalgamation  of  bands. 


140 


omitted  from  the  terms  of  the  surrender  instrument.77 

The  most  objectionable  part  of  the  whole  proceeding,  however, 
was  that  so  few  of  the  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  were  consulted. 
Only  three  men  were  invited  to  consider  the  important  matter.  It  is 
said  that  one  of  the  three,  Napasis,  objected  to  the  surrender  and 
favoured  the  retention  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  until  such  time  as 
his  band's  population  had  revived  sufficiently  to  make  use  of  the  land 
once  again;  de  Balinhard  is  alleged  to  have  replied  that  such  a  small 
number  of  Indians  would  not  be  permitted  to  keep  such  a  large  block  of 
land  idle.  When  the  question  was  presented  to  them  in  this  way, 
Napasis,  and  his  two  colleagues,  Antoine,  and  James  Stoney,  each 
marked  his  "X"  on  the  surrender  instrument  and  gave  assent  to  the 


7  7 

When  the  surrender  instrument  was  signed,  the  three  signa¬ 
tories  asked  for,  and  were  promised,  lumber  and  shingles  to  assist 
them  in  building  new  houses  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve.  The  cost  of 
purchasing  these  materials,  which  was  estimated  at  approximately 
$114.00,  was  to  be  recouped  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  Reserve,  yet  no  mention  was  made  of  this  provision  in  the 
terms  of  the  surrender,  and  the  promise  may  not  have  been  fulfilled. 

No  expenditure  for  building  materials  was  made  from  the  funds  of  Enoch's 
Band  until  1900-1901.  A.  E.  Forget  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent 
General,  August  30,  1889,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786, 

File  42,010;  Passpasschase  Band  Surrender  Instrument,  November  19,  1888; 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1901,  Vol.  XXXIV  (No.  1) ,  p.  J-129.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  the  requested  building  materials  were  supplied, 
but  that  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  never  took  the  trouble  to 
recoup  the  amount  expended  from  the  Capital  Funds  of  Enoch's  Band.  The 
oldest  living  member  of  Enoch's  Band  has  told  me  that  the  government 
did  assist  the  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  to  build  new  houses 
on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve.  Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  taped  interview  with  Jim 
Lapotac,  November  22,  1972,  (in  Cree) ,  in  the  possession  of  Enoch's 
Band,  Winterburn,  Alberta. 

7  fl 

Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  personal  and  informal  interview  with  Jim 
Lapotac  at  the  Enoch's  Band  Office,  October,  1973. 


141 


alienation  of  forty  square  miles  of  valuable  land.78 

But  there  were  many  others  who  had  an  equal  right  with  these 
three  to  be  consulted  on  the  disposition  of  the  surrendered  land.  Even 
if  one  were  to  believe  that  only  those  adult  males  who  would  have  been 
considered  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  in  September  of  1886  were 
eligible  voters,  there  were  at  least  twelve  other  persons  who  had  an 
equally  good  claim  to  decide  on  the  question  of  the  surrender  as  the 
three  who  signed  the  instrument.  Of  these  twelve,  five  had  recently- 
received  their  annuities  from  Agent  de  Balinhard,  and  three  others  had 
been  paid  by  Agent  Lucas  at  Peace  Hills,  and  could  have  been  located 
by  the  authorities  with  very  little  difficulty.80  De  Balinhard  excused 
himself  by  claiming  that  the  three  who  signed  were  the  only  men  of  the 
band  then  remaining  and  located  on  the  Stony  Plain  Reserve.81  Even 
were  this  true,  which  is  doubtful,  it  should  hardly  have  mattered  that 
some  of  the  eligible  voters  were  residing  in  one  place,  and  others  at 
different  locations  scarcely  farther  away  from  the  reserve  in  question. 
The  Department,  however,  appears  to  have  considered  the  surrender 
merely  a  pro  forma  matter,  and  took  no  notice  of  any  irregularities  or 
inconsistencies  in  its  wording  or  in  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
achieved. 

Having  obtained  his  three  signatures.  Agent  de  Balinhard  was 

7  9 

Passpasschase  Band,  Surrender  Instrument,  November  19,  1888. 

80D.I.N.A.,  Annuity  Paysheets  for  1886,  1887,  and  1888  -  Pass¬ 
passchase,  Enoch* s,  Alexander’s,  Sampson’s,  and  Ermineskin's  Bands. 

81See  A.  E.  Forget  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General, 

August  30,  1889,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File 
42,010  and  draft  of  same  letter  in  Vol.  3582,  File  1023 t. 


142 


compelled  to  wait  until  May  22,  1889  before  he  could  take  Napasis 
before  Justice  Rouleau  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  North  West  Terri¬ 
tories  to  undertake  the  second  step  in  the  surrender  procedure — the 
swearing  of  an  affidavit  by  himself  and  Napasis,  as  the  principal  man 
of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  to  the  effect  that  the  surrender  was  taken 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Indian  Act.82  The  documents  were 
then  forwarded  to  Ottawa  where  they  were  accepted  by  Order  in  Council 
on  October  12,  1889.  The  object  of  the  surrender  was  said  to  be  "to 
admit  of  the  land  comprised  in  the  Reserve  being  sold  by  the  Depart¬ 
ment  for  the  benefit  of  the  Indians  owning  the  same."83 

While  the  intention  to  sell  the  land  was  clear,  the  task  proved 
somewhat  more  difficult  of  accomplishment  than  was  believed.  The  land 
was  re-subdivided  by  Surveyor  John  C.  Nelson  in  October  of  1890,  and 
each  quarter  section  was  evaluated  at  $3.00  per  acre  as  an  upset  price. 
In  spite  of  the  many  earlier  protests  to  the  effect  that  the  land  of 
the  Passpasschase  Reserve  was  needed  by  better  men,  it  proved  exceed¬ 
ingly  difficult  to  sell.  Two  auction  sales,  held  at  Calgary  and  Edmcn- 


ft  2 

Actually  it  could  be  argued  that  the  affidavit  is  not  in 
accord  with  the  Indian  Act,  as  it  merely  affirms  that  the  surrender 
was  approved  by  a  majority  of  the  adult  males  at  the  meeting  called  to 
consider  it,  and  the  best  interpretation  of  the  relevant  clause  of  the 
Indian  Act  would  appear  to  require  the  assent  of  a  majority  of  the 
adult  males  of  the  band.  W.  C.  de  Salinhard  and  Napasis ,  deposition 
sworn  before  Charles  Rouleau,  May  22,  1889,  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council 
Records,  Series  1,  P.C.  2329/1899,  (October  12,  1889.) 

o3Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council,  October  12,  1889, 
P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  P.C.  2329/1389. 


ton  in  1891  and  1893  respectively,  were  dismal  failures.84  The  land 
was  then  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Dominion  Lands  Agent  at  Edmonton 
for  sale  to  individual  settlers  at  the  surveyor's  valuation.  Commencing 
on  January  1,  1894,  sales  were  made  to  settlers  arriving  in  Edmonton 
for  prices  ranging  from  $3.50  to  $4.00  per  acre.  By  1902  all  of  the 
land  had  been  sold,85  most  of  it  to  a  number  of  Moravian  immigrants 
under  the  guidance  of  a  Rev.  Clement  Hoyler.88  A  few  of  the  sales  were 
not  completed  until  1930,  but  the  majority  of  the  purchasers  had 
received  their  patents  by  1908. 87  Enoch's  Band  received  a  total  of 


84Charges  were  made  that  a  swindle  was  being  perpetrated  in 
connection  with  the  1891  auction.  Edgar  Dewdney ,  the  then  Superin¬ 
tendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs ,  replied  rather  lamely  to  such  accu¬ 
sations  in  the  House  of  Commons  a  few  days  before  the  sale  was  to  take 
place.  But  bungling  and  a  poor  demand  for  the  land  seems  to  have  been 
responsible  for  the  poor  results.  Only  three  sections  of  the  forty 
square  miles  were  sold,  and  seeing  that  the  small  attendance  of  buyers 
were  all  speculators,  Indian  Commissioner  Hayter  Reed  stopped  the  sale 
on  the  grounds  that  the  prices  being  achieved  were  too  low.  In  1893 
only  a  little  ever  five  sections  were  disposed  of,  and  a  great  effort 
was  made  to  prevent  speculators  from  purchasing.  If  Dewdney  or  anyone 
else  was  attempting  to  rig  the  sale  of  the  reserve  in  their  own  inter¬ 
est,  it  is  quite  apparent  that  they  failed.  See  Canada,  Debates  of 
the  House  of  Commons ,  1891  Session,  columns  1403-1406,  and  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42010-2B  passim. 

8 5 See  J.  D.  McLean  to  D.  P.  Keogh,  Strathcona,  December  19, 

1902,  in  D.I.N.A.,  File  774/36-2,  in  the  possession  of  the  Department 
of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  Ottawa. 

8 8 Arthur  S.  Morton,  A  History  of  Prairie  Settlement,  (Toronto: 
Macmillan,  1938) ,  p.  98.  Rev.  Morris  W.  Leibert,  "Bruederfeld  and 
Bruederheim.  Moravian  Settlements  of  German  Russians  in  Alberta, 
Canada,”  -  pamphlet,  (Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania:  1896)  and  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42010  and  42010-2B  and  Vol.  6668, 

File  110A-5-1  and  110A-5-2 .  The  latter  four  files  give  extensive 
information  on  the  sale  of  the  Passpass chase  lands. 

O  “7 

0/ D.I.N.A.,  "Reserve  Land  Sales  Register,"  -  Sales  Book  No.  2 
in  the  possession  of  rhe  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs, 
Ottawa . 


144 


$98,701.44  from  the  sale  of  the  reserve,  or  $3.87  per  acre.88 

While  this  money  was  placed  to  the  credit  of  Enoch's  Band,  the 
Indians  received  very  little  personal  benefit  therefrom.  The  clause 
of  the  surrender  promising  annual  or  semi-annual  distributions  of 
interest  does  not  appear  to  have  been  honoured,  and  by  the  late  1890's 
former  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  began  to  complain  that  they 

O  Q 

had  received  nothing  from  the  sale  of  their  old  reserve.  3 


Q  O 

Ibid..  This  figure  excludes  the  amount  received  in  interest 
from  the  purchasers  and  the  small  amounts  received  from  the  sale  of 
haying  rights  on  the  unsold  lands.  See  D.I.N.A.,  File  774/32-1-2,  in 
the  possession  of  the  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs, 
Ottawa . 


89Frank  Oliver  to  Clifford  Sifton,  June  27,  1897;  and  James 
Stoney,  statement  to  A.  McDonald,  August  28,  1897;  both  in  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  7542,  File  29110-6. 


CHAPTER  V 


A  HARBINGER 


At  the  present  time  the  former  reserve 
on  the  South  side  is  producing  many  thousands 
of  bushels  of  grain,  thereby  adding  to  the  wealth 
of  the  country,  all  of  which  would  not  have  been 
had  the  land  yet  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
Indians,  who  would  have  simply  led  an  idle  life 
and  produced  nothing  but  bills  which  the  Indian 
Department  would  have  to  pay.-*- 

— Frank  Oliver,  July  28,  1897. 


145 


146 


The  tract  of  land  surveyed  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  Pass- 
passchase  Band  was  the  first  Indian  reserve  in  the  Canadian  North  West 
to  be  surrendered  and  sold.  It  was  not  to  be  the  last.  During  the 
course  of  the  succeeding  forty  years,  the  entire  reserves  of  a  dozen 
other  Indian  bands  in  the  three  prairie  provinces  were  permanently 
alienated.* 2  More  than  forty  others  were  greatly  reduced  in  area  by 
the  surrender  process.3  Yet,  like  many  precedents,  the  Passpasschase 
surrender  was  not  intended  as  the  first  step  of  a  well-considered 
programme.  It  is  true  that  the  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs 
and  his  Deputy  had  flirted  briefly  with  a  comprehensive  policy  of 
reserve  land  surrenders,  to  be  particularly  directed  towards  bands 
which  had  experienced  a  significant  number  of  withdrawals  from  Treaty. 
But  such  ideas  were  soon  rejected,  and  Michel's  Band,  which  had  prompted 
consideration  of  the  policy,  kept  its  'surplus'  lands  until  1903. 


iFrank  Oliver  to  Clifford  Sifton,  July  28,  1897,  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  7542,  File  29110-6. 

2These  were  the  Sharphead  and  Bobtail  Reserves  in  Alberta,  the 
Chekastapasin,  Ocean  Man,  Pheasant's  Rump,  Swan  Lake  (7A) ,  Little  Bone, 
Thunderchild,  and  Moosomin  Reserves  in  Saskatchewan,  and  the  Gambler, 
Turtle  Mountain,  and  St.  Peter's  Reserves  in  Manitoba.  In  some  of  these 
cases  the  old  reserves  were  completely  sold,  and  new  reserves,  located 
in  less  desirable  locations,  farther  from  white  settlement,  were  pur¬ 
chased  by  the  bands  at  a  lower  price  than  they  had  received  for  their 
former  lands.  In  another  instance,  that  of  the  Young  Chipewayan 
Reserve,  no  surrender  was  taken,  and  the  land  was  alienated  without 
compensation.  Canada,  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  Land 
Registry  Office,  "Reserve  General  Register"  for  each  of  the  reserves 
named.  In  addition  to  these  twelve  there  were  other  reserves  that  were 
completely  surrendered  in  exchange  for  other  lands  elsewhere,  but  for 
which  no  financial  compensation  was  paid. 

O  _ 

These  included  surrenders  from  the  Stony  Plain,  Michel, 
Alexander,  Sampson,  Louis  Bull,  Peigan,  Wabamun,  Blackfoot,  Stoney, 
Sarcee,  Pigeon  Lake,  Saddle  Lake,  Duncan,  Hc-rse  Lakes,  Swan  River,  and 
Driftpile  Reserves  in  Alberta,  the  Cumberland  House,  Cumberland  (100A) , 


147 


Nor  was  the  Passpasschase  surrender  the  result  of  a  policy 
urged  upon  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  from  another  quarter. 

While  Alberta  politicians  and  the  townspeople  of  Edmonton  had  loudly 
proclaimed  that  Indian  reserves  should  be  removed  from  the  vicinity  of 
growing  white  settlements,  Indian  Affairs  did  not  adopt  that  view.  For 
six  years  it  successfully  ignored  pressure  from  the  people  of  Edmonton 
directed  against  the  continued  location  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve 
to  the  south  of  their  settlement,  and  no  move  was  made  to  relocate 
other  reserves  near  growing  centres  of  white  population  until  after 
1896. 4  High  officials  of  .the  Indian  Department  paid  little  more  heed 
to  the  Department  of  the  Interior’s  representations  that  in  cases 
where  reserve  lands  had  been  set  aside  for  Indians  who  had  subsequently 


Cote,  Grizzly  Bear's  Head  and  Lean  Man,  Assiniboine,  Pasquah,  Kahke- 
wistahaw,  Cowes sess,  Fishing  Lake,  Key,  Keeseekoose,  Muscowpetung, 
Mistawasis,  Muskowequan,  Meadow  Lake,  Big  River,  Muskeg  Lake,  Poor  Man, 
Ochapowace,  Piapot,  Last  Mountain  Lake,  and  Little  Black  Bear  Reserves 
in  Saskatchewan,  and  the  Roseau  River  and  Swan  Lake  Reserves  in  Mani¬ 
toba.  D.I.N.A. ,  Land  Registry  Office,  "Reserve  General  Register"  for 
each  of  the  reserves  named. 

^in  1886  there  had  been  pressure  to  relocate  the  Crooked  Lakes 
Reserves  in  order  to  increase  the  distance  between  them  and  the  town 
of  Eroadview,  Assin.iboia.  The  Indians  we  re  not  approached  for  a 
surrender,  however,  because  the  Indian  Agent  expressed  doubts  about  the 
scheme.  Tyler,  "History  of  the  Cowessess  Band,"  pp.  88-91.  Following 
the  1896  election,  efforts  to  relocate  these  reserves  were  renewed,  and 
ultimately  surrenders  of  the  portion  of  these  reserves  nearest  the 
main  line  of  the  C.P.R. ,  were  taken;  ibid. ,  pp.  93-118.  Attempts, 
successful  and  otherwise,  were  made  to  obtain  the  surrenders  of  other 
reserves  near  settlements  after  1896,  For  a  discussion  of  some  of 
these  efforts  in  Southern  Saskatchewan,  see  Stewart  Raby,  "Indian  Land 
Surrenders  in  Southern  Saskatchewan,"  in  Canadian  Geographer,  Vol.  XVII 
(1973),  No.  1,  pp.  36-52.  The  most  controversial  surrender  designed  to 
remove  Indians  from  the  vicinity  of  white  settlement  was  probably  that 
of  the  St.  Peter's  Reserve  near  Selkirk,  Manitoba,  in  1907.  P.A.C., 

Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3617  to  3620,  File  4646  to  4646-X. 


148 


received  half-breed  scrip,  such  lands  should  be  made  available  for 
settlement  as  ordinary  Dominion  Lands.  When  it  was  alienated,  the 
Passpasschase  Reserve  was  sold  in  individual  quarter  sections  and  was 
not  thrown  open  for  homestead  entry,  nor  utilized  to  fulfil  land  grant 
commitments  to  Canadian  railroads. 

The  Passpasschase  surrender  was  not  then  the  result  of  any 
policy  for  reserve  land  surrenders.  Rather,  it  was  the  reaction  to  a 
unique  set  of  circumstances.  The  entire  membership  of  the  band  had 
desired  to  withdraw  from  Treaty  and  accept  half-breed  scrip,  a  majority 
were  permitted  to  do  so,  and  the  Indians  remaining  in  the  band  were 
those  judged  to  be  the  least  capable  of  supporting  themselves.  When 
the  remnant  allegedly  appealed  for  permission  to  join  Enoch's  Band  on 
the  Stony  Plain  Reserve,  it  is  hardly  surprising  that  the  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs  should  have  considered  it  advisable  to  agree  to  the 
request.  Although  the  desire  of  the  Treaty  members  of  the  Passpasschase 
Band  to  abandon  their  reserve  was  questionable,  all  doubts  on  that  score 
were  overshadowed  by  the  practical  problem  of  evicting  the  former 
Indians  who  refused  to  leave  their  homes  on  the  reserve.  Immediate 
difficulties  rather  than  general  policy  led  to  the  successful  effort  to 
persuade  the  Treaty  remnant  to  move  to  Stony  Plain  in  August  of  1887. 

Thus,  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  was  abandoned,  and  a  surrender 
was  needed  to  regularize  the  proceeding.  Quite  apparently,  officials  of 
the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  in  the  North  West  considered  such  legal 
necessities  as  relatively  unimportant.  When  compared  with  the  problems 
of  maintaining  peace  and  of  providing  relief  to  the  starving,  the 
significance  of  such  nuisances  as  the  proper  procedure  for  the  calling 


of  band  meetings,  the  signing  of  documents,  and  the  swearing  of  affi¬ 
davits  were  at  a  discount.  This  careless  attitude  toward  legal  nicetie 
was  reflected  in  the  administration  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  lands. 
The  reserve,  itself,  was  not  "confirmed"  by  Order  in  Council  until  .May 
of  1889,  six  months  after  the  surrender  instrument  had  been  signed. 

The  lands  within  it  were  not  withdrawn  from  the  operations  of  the 
Dominion  Lands  Act  until  June  of  1893,  almost  four  years  after  the 
surrender  had  been  accepted  by  Order  in  Council.  The  Passpasschase 
Indians  were  admitted  into  membership  in  other  bands  before  they  were 
requested  to  consent  to  the  sale  of  their  reserve,  greatly  compli¬ 
cating  the  question  of  who  had  a  right  to  participate  in  the  surrender 
proceedings .  Opportunities  to  consult  with  a  representative  number  of 
the  adult  male  membership  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  were  neglected  in 
favour  of  a  hasty  meeting  with  a  mere  fraction  of  the  population  eli¬ 
gible  to  vote  on  the  question  of  alienating  their  reserve.  At  that 
meeting,  standard  surrender  forms,  prepared  for  use  in  Eastern  Canada, 
were  signed  without  being  altered  to  conform  to  the  actual  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  Passpasschase  Band  and  its  reserve.  Such  irregularities 
stemmed  from  carelessness  and  inexperience  rather  than  any  malevolent 
attempt  to  rob  the  Indians  of  their  land,  but  they  have  cast  doubt  upon 
the  validity  of  the  entire  procedure.5 

Officials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  were  not  pleased 
with  the  outcome  of  the  Passpasschase  surrender,  and  did  not  wish  to 

5In  1973,  the  Enoch's  Band  made  a  presentation  to  the  Indian 
Claims  Commissioner,  Dr.  Lloyd  Barber,  arguing  that  the  Passpasschase 
surrender  was  invalid.  The  claim  has  not,  as  of  1978,  been  pursued  in 
the  courts,  however. 


150 


have  it  established  as  a  precedent  for  the  alienation  of  abandoned 
reserves.  Hayter  Reed,  the  Assistant  Indian  Commissioner  who  had  per¬ 
suaded  the  Treaty  Indian  remnant  to  abandon  their  reserve,  was  espec¬ 
ially  disappointed.  In  1888,  Reed  was  promoted  to  the  post  of  Indian 
Commissioner  for  Manitoba  and  the  North  West  Territories,* 6  and,  in  1893, 
he  became  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General,7  the  highest  ranking  civil 
servant  in  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs.  The  legal  irregularities 
did  not  seem  to  concern  him, 6  nor  did  the  dissatisfaction  on  the  part 
of  the  former  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band.8  But  the  sale  of  the 
reserve  lands  seemed  to  have  caused  endless  trouble.  Reed  had  conducted 
the  first  unsuccessful  auction  of  Passpasschase  land  at  Calgary  in  1891, 


^Canada,  Secretary  of  State,  The  Civil  Service  List  of  Canada, 

1889  (Ottawa:  Queen's  Printer,  1890),  p.  167. 

7 Canada,  Secretary  cf  State,  The  Civil  Service  List  of  Canada, 
1894  (Ottawa:  Queen's  Printer,  1895),  p.  169. 

8 Reed 1 s  lack  of  concern  for  scrupulousness  in  following  proper 
legal  procedures  was  indicated  by  his  reaction  to  a  warning  from 
Assistant  Indian  Commissioner  A.  E.  Forget,  that  all  surrenders  taken 
by  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  since  1876  might  have  been  invalid 
since  they  were  only  assented  to  by  a  majority  of  the  adult  male  band 
members  at  a  meeting,  rather  than  by  a  majority  of  the  total  adult  male 
band  membership.  The  Department  of  Justice  advised  that  the  Indian  Act 
should  be  amended  to  remove  doubt  on  the  question,  but  Reed  declined  to 
take  action,  because  he  did  not  think  it  to  be  "at  all  a  wise  proceeding 
to  raise  any  question  as  to  the  validity  of  past  surrenders."  See 
A.  E.  Forget  to  Hayter  Reed,  December  29,  1893;  and  Hayter  Reed  to 
A.  E.  Forget,  January  5,  1894;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 
Vol.  3574,  File  197;  and  E.  L,  Newcombe  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent 
General  of  Indian  Affairs,  January  15,  1894,  P.A.C.,  Justice  Records, 
Series  A- 3,  Vol.  103,  pp.  424-425. 

8Reed  attempted  to  keep  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  Pass¬ 
passchase  Reserve  from  the  former  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band, 
and  from  the  members  of  Enoch's  Band  who  were  then  sharing  their 
reserve  with  the  Passpasschase  people.  Hayter  Reed  to  E.  L.  Newcombe, 
November  28,  1894,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File 
26,137. 


and  had  been  forced  to  halt  the  sale  when  it  became  apparent  that  the 
land  would  only  sell  to  speculators  at  disappointingly  low  prices.  10 
The  second  auction  sale,  two  years  later,  produced  little  better 
results,  11  and  the  land  was  finally  disposed  of  in  quarter  sections 
through  the  Dominion  Lands  Office  at  Edmonton. 12  The  local  agent  of 
the  Department  of  the  Interior  refused  to  exert  himself  to  administer 
the  affairs  of  the  Indian  Department,13  and  the  involvement  of  two 
government  departments  often  resulted  in  bureaucratic  muddles.  14 


1(1F.  H.  Paget  to  the  ■  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of  Indian 
Affairs,  July  9,  1891,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786, 

File  42 , 010-2B . 

1  Barnes  J.  Campbell  to  the  Commissioner,  20  April,  1893;  and 
F.  H.  Paget  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General,  May  1,  1893;  both 
in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,010-2B. 

12Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council,  26  October,  1893, 
P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  571,  P.C.  2789/1893;  and 
Hayter  Reed  to  A.  M.  Burgess,  November  11,  1893,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs 
Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42010-2B. 

13The  Dominion  Lands  Agent  at  Edmonton,  Thomas  Anderson,  made 
clear  his  displeasure  at  being  asked  to  administer  the  Passpasschase 
sales,  and,  at  one  point,  tried  to  resign  the  responsibility.  Thomas 
Anderson  to  Hayter  Reed,  May  14,  1894,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 
Vol.  3786,  File  42,010-2B. 

1LfThe  confusion  was  sometimes  incredible.  Records  were  kept  in 
three  separate  places,  the  earlier  sales  were  administered  in  Regina, 
the  later  sales  in  Edmonton,  and  a  separate  set  of  records  for  all  sales 
was  kept  in  Ottawa  (A.  E.  Forget  to  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General  of 
Indian  Affairs,  May  22,  1897,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3910, 
File  109,731.)  Lands  were  sometimes  sold  twice  (Thomas  Anderson  to 
Hayter  Reed,  September  6,  1894;  Hayter  Reed  to  Thomas  Anderson,  Octo¬ 
ber  23,  1894;  and  Thomas  Anderson  to  Hayter  Reed,  November  8,  1894;  all 
in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3911,  File  111,213);  people  were 
sold  the  wrong  quarter  sections  (R.  W.  Lendrum  to  the  Agent  of  Dominion 
Land.4,  Edmonton,  September  2,  1895;  R.  A.  Ruttan  to  R.  W.  Lendrum, 
September  9,  1895;  both  in  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786, 
File  42,010-2B);  money  and  documents  were  sent  to  the  wrong  places 
(A.  E.  Forget  to  Hayter  Reed.  December  3,  1894;  Sown  and  Prince  to  the 
Secretary,  Department  of  the  Interior,  December  3,  1894;  both  in 
P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786,  File  42,01C-2B);  and  the 


Hayter  Reed  was  evidently  disillusioned  with  these  results 


and,  after  assuming  the  post  of  Deputy  Superintendent  General,  vainly 
sought  the  means  to  evade  the  surrender  provisions  of  the  Indian  Act 
in  other  cases  where  Indian  reserves  had  been  abandoned.  In  1894,  the 
new  Deputy  Minister  of  Justice,  E.  L.  Newcombe,  was  asked  to  comment 
upon  G.  W.  Burbridge 1 s  1886  legal  opinion  that  "surplus"  lands  must  be 
surrendered  before  being  alienated.15  Newcombe  could  find  no  fault  in 
his  predecessor's  reasoning,  and  replied  that  there  was  "no  provision 
in  the  law  .  .  .  under  which  a  reserve  set  apart  under  this  treaty  for 
a  particular  band  can  on  account  of  reduction  for  any  cause  of  the 
original  number  of  the  band,  be  reduced  in  extent  without  the  sanction 
of  those  who  still  continue  to  be  members."16  Upon  the  slender  reed  of 
the  final  eleven  words  of  this  pronouncement,  the  Deputy  Superintendent 
General  built  a  very  precarious  policy. 

In  1889  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  had  finally  agreed  to 
compromise  with  reality  and  to  recognize  the  transfers  of  individual 
Indians  from  one  band  to  another.  A  procedure  for  formal  transfers  was 
devised,  and  standard  forms  to  be  used  in  the  process  were  drafted  and 
distributed.1"  In  1895,  an  amendment  to  the  Indian  Act  was  passed  by 


Department  of  Interior's  method  of  computing  interest  differed  from 
that  of  Indian  Affairs,  causing  numerous  disputes  (R.  A.  Ruttan  to 
Hayter  Reed,  August  1,  1895,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3786, 
File  42,010-23) . 

1 5Hayter  Reed  to  E.  L.  Newcombe,  November  28,  1894,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

16E.  L.  Newcombe  to  Hayter  Reed,  November  30,  1894,  P.A.C., 
Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3729,  File  26,137. 

1 ~P .A.C . ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3807,  File  52,583-2 

passim;. 


Parliament  which  declared  that  "when  by  a  majority  vote  of  a  band,  or 
the  council  of  a  band,  an  Indian  of  one  band  is  admitted  into  member¬ 
ship  in  another  band,  and  his  admission  thereinto  is  assented  to  by 
the  superintendent  general,  such  Indian  shall  cease  to  have  any 
interest  in  the  lands  or  moneys  of  the  band  of  which  he  was  formerly  a 
member,  and  shall  be  entitled  to  share  in  the  lands  and  moneys  of  the 
band  to  which  he  is  so  admitted."1®  when  this  provision  had  been 
enacted,  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  began  to  arrange  formal  trans¬ 
fers  for  the  members  of  the  Sharphead  and  Chekastapasin  Bands,  who  had 
previously  abandoned  their  reserves  near  the  present-day  sites  of 
Ponoka,  Alberta,  and  Birch  Hills,  Saskatchewan,  respectively.19  The 
objective  was  to  totally  deplete  the  membership  of  the  bands ,  and  leave 
no  one  with  a  legal  interest  in  the  two  reserves.  When  that  had  been 
accomplished,  Reed  believed  that  the  lands  could  be  thrown  open  for 
settlement  without  a  surrender,  or  the  payment  of  any  compensation  to 
the  Indians. 

Most,  but  not  all,  of  the  Indians  were  formally  transferred,  but 


1 8 Canada,  Statutes  of  Canada,  58-59  Vic.,  (1895),  Cap  35, 

Sec.  8. 

19P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3912,  File  111,777-1 
passim,  and  Vol.  5663,  File  109A-3-1  vcl.  1  passim.  The  same 
procedure  was  to  be  implemented  on  a  third  reserve,  that  of  Young 
Chipewayan,  but  Indian  Commissioner  Forget  declared  that  the  people 
of  that  band  would  be  too  difficult  to  find,  and  no  attempt  was  made 
to  arrange  transfers  for  them.  The  reserve  was  given  to  the  Depart¬ 
ment  of  the  Interior  without  a  surrender  and  without  compensation  to 
its  original  owners.  See  P.A.C. ,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  6663, 
Files  109A-3-1  vol.  1  and  109A-3-2  passim. 


154 


before  the  reserves  could  be  conveyed  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior, 
the  election  of  1896  intervened,  and,  following  the  change  of  government, 
Hayter  Reed  was  superannuated. 20  The  former  Deputy  Superintendent 
General's  scheme  for  evading  the  surrender  provisions  of  the  Indian  Act 
was  considered  to  be  questionable  enough  to  cause  the  new  Superintendent 
General,  Clifford  Sifton,  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  Justice  Department 
in  May  of  1897. 2*  Newcombe  was  obviously  scandalized  by  the  interpre¬ 
tation  placed  upon  his  earlier  legal  opinion.  He  declared  unequivo¬ 
cally  that  the  Indian  Act  "positively  forbids,  subject  to  certain 
exceptions,  which  have  no  application  to  the  present  case,  the  sale, 
alienation  or  lease  of  any  reserve  or  portion  of  a  reserve  without  .  .  . 
[a]  release  or  surrender."22  The  Indians  whose  formal  transfers  had 
been  so  carefully  arranged,  were  then  asked  to  consent  to  the  surrender 
of  their  former  reserve  lands  in  the  usual  way.23  Reed's  dubious 
scheme  was  thus  aborted. 


20Reed  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  from  March  1,  1897  on  the 
understanding  that  he  would  be  superannuated.  The  Treasury  Board 
Minute  sanctioning  his  retirement  was  not  approved  until  June  of  1897, 
however.  Canada,  Privy  Council,  Order  in  Council,  June  30,  1897, 

P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  736,  P.C.  1880/1897. 

21J.  D.  McLean,  memorandum,  April  14,  1897,  with  marginal 
notation  by  Clifford  Sifton,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  6663, 
File  109A-3-1  vol.  1. 

p  p 

E.  L.  Newcombe  to  the  Acting  Secretary,  Department  of  Indian 
Affairs,  May  14,  1897,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  6663,  File 
109A-3-1  vol.  I. 

9  O 

‘■''Chekastapasin  Band,  surrender  instrument,  June  23,  1897, 
P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  740,  P.C.  2135/1897, 

(July  21,  1897.)  Sharphead  Band,  surrender  instrument,  September  11, 
1897,  P.A.C.,  Privy  Council  Records,  Series  1,  Vol.  753,  P.C.  3446/1897, 
(December  30,  1897.) 


The  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  sought  to  avoid  the  repetition 
of  its  experience  with  the  disposition  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve, 
but  was  compelled  to  continue  the  practice  of  taking  surrenders  of 
abandoned  Indian  reserve  lands  by  the  interpretation  placed  on  the  law 
by  the  Department  of  Justice.  Nevertheless,  it  was  apparent  that 
officials  of  the  Indian  Department  desired  to  treat  the  Passpasschase 
surrender  as  an  aberration  rather  than  a  precedent.  But  others  were  of 
a  different  mind.  The  people  of  Edmonton,  and  pre-eminent  among  them, 
Frank  Oliver,  were  convinced  that  the  sale  of  the  Indian  reserve  situ¬ 
ated  to  the  south  of  their  town  had  been  an  unmixed  blessing.  They 
would  have  scoffed  at  the  suggestion  that  any  moral  wrong  had  been 
done  to  the  members  of  the  Passpasschase  Band,  most  of  whom  had  been 
discharged  from  Treaty  at  their  own  request,  and  the  remainder  of  whom 
had  agreed  to  leave  their  reserve  without  protest.  As  for  themselves, 
Edmontonians  were  doubtless  greatly  relieved  that  a  group  of  Indians 
which  had  been,  at  the  best  of  times  a  nuisance,  and  at  the  worst,  a 
source  of  real  anxiety,  should  have  been  dispersed  to  locations  farther 
removed  from  their  settlement. 

But  it  was  the  contrast  between  the  use  made  of  the  reserve  land 
by  the  Indians,  and  the  white  farmers  who  later  purchased  it,  which  made 
the  most  telling  point.  The  few,  tiny  fields  which  Passpasschase  and 
his  followers  had  bestirred  themselves  to  cultivate  compared  most  un¬ 
favourably  with  the  scores  of  prosperous  farms  which  dotted  the  same 
land  just  fifteen  years  later.  As  the  Edmonton  Bulletin  proclaimed  in 
1901: 

The  tract  of  country  south  of  Strathcona  known  as 
the  Indian  reserve  is  covered  with  stubble  fields  and 


156 


grain  stacks.  Seven  steam  threshers  are  finding 
ample  work  on  it  this  fall.  It  is  producing  many 
thousands  of  bushels  of  grain  and  thereby  adding 
wealth  to  the  country.  Had  it  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  Indians  it  would  still  be  a  tax  eating  instead 
of  a  tax  paying  proposition.214 

In  the  newspaper's  opinion  the  argument  which  had  justified  the  European 

occupation  of  the  Americas  as  a  whole — that  the  Indians  made  little  or 

no  use  of  the  resources  provided  by  their  lands — applied  equally  to 

reserves  set  aside  under  the  terms  of  solemn  treaties.  The  Bulletin 

was  eager  to  see  the  history  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  repeated. 

The  lesson  of  this  reserve  may  very  well  be  applied  to 

the  case  of  others  similarly  situated.  The  Indians  make 

no  practical  use  of  the  reserves  which  they  hold.  Where 
the  land  is  good  and  well  situated  for  market  white  men 

can  turn  it  to  much  better  account  than  the  Indians  do. 

A  township  in  a  good  hunting  country  and  near  a  fishing 
lake  is  more  valuable  to  the  Indians  than  a  township  of 
fine  agricultural  land  near  a  railway  station.  It  is  a 
loss  to  the  country  to  have  such  lands  lying  idle  in  the 
hands  of  the  Indians  when  white  men  want  to  use  them  and 
are  willing  to  pay  for  them.  It  is  a  loss  to  the  Indian 
to  compel  him  to  remain  in  uncongenial  surroundings  to 
which  he  cannot  adapt  himself  when  he  has  the  opportunity 
to  remove  to  congenial  surroundings,  ar.d  by  the  sale  of 
the  land  ensure  himself  a  comfortable  annuity.25 

It  is  said  that  hard  cases  make  bad  law,  and  it  is  no  less  true 
that  unusual  situations  set  poor  examples  for  government  policy.  The 
Edmonton  newspaper's  view  of  the  history  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve 
might  have  been  justified,  but  to  depict  such  a  case  as  typical  was  a 
burlesque  upon  the  conditions  of  other  Indian  reserves  in  the  North  West. 
Few,  if  any,  other  Indian  bands  could  boast  of  such  a  collection  of  un¬ 
savoury  characters  among  their  members  as  that  of  Chief  Passpasschase. 


24 "Indian  Reserves,"  Edmonton  Bulletin,  October  28,  1901,  p.  2. 
2 5 Ibid. 


Few  had  been  so  willing  to  abandon  their  Indian  status  for  the  short¬ 
lived  wealth  to  be  gained  by  accepting  half-breed  scrip.  In  spite  of 
the  difficulties  posed  by  ill-advised  government  policies  that  limited 

o  c 

cultivated  acreages  and  discouraged  the  use  of  farm  machinery,  and 
by  the  omnipresent  pall  of  tuberculosis  and  other  diseases  which  sapped 
the  energies  of  so  many,  the  agricultural  progress  on  most  Indian 
reserves  had  been  far  more  extensive  than  the  Bulletin  indicated.  Some 

2  R 

Indian  farmers  were  claimed  to  be  on  a  par  with  neighbouring  whites,  ° 

p  q 

and  evidence  of  this  had  been  given  at  many  agricultural  exhibitions. 

It  was  ridiculous  to  assert  that  the  Indians  were  "compelled"  to  remain 
on  fine  agricultural  land.  They  had  chosen  their  reserve  sites  them- 
selves,  and  were  seldom  willing  to  exchange  them  for  locations  else¬ 
where.  Furthermore,  when  the  "lesson"  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  came 
to  be  "applied  to  the  case  of  others  similarly  situated,"  many  tracts 
of  surrendered  land  were  sold  to  speculators,  and  were  as  effectively 


26P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3964,  File  148,285 

passim. 

2?Tyler ,  "History  of  the  Cowessess  Band,"  pp.  53-55. 

E.  Lake  to  the  Superintendent  General,  June  30,  1893, 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1894,  Vol.  XXVII  (No.  14) ,  p.  80.  Charles 
de  Cazes  to  the  Superintendent  General,  June  30,  1897,  Canada, 

Sessional  Papers  for  1898,  Vol.  XXXI  (No.  14),  p.  150. 

29Hayter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  October,  1890, 
Canada,  Sessional  Papers  for  1891,  Vol.  XXIV  (No.  18),  pp.  134-135. 

Hay ter  Reed  to  the  Superintendent  General,  December  1,  1891,  Canada, 
Sessional  Papers  for  1892,  Vol.  XXV  (No.  14),  pp.  195-196. 

^W.  J.  Christie,  "Treaty  Number  Six.  Indian  Reserves,  Carlton 
Indians  -  Crees  of  Saskatchewan,"  October  10,  1876,  P.A.C.,  Indian 
Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3636,  File  6694-1. 


withheld  from  production  as  if  the  most  indolent  band  of  Indians  had 
remained  in  possession  of  them. 35 

Such  facts  were  ignored  by  the  Edmonton  Bulletin  and  its  owner, 
Frank  Oliver.  Oliver  had  been  associated  with  the  newspaper  since  its 
inception,  as  editor,  publisher,  and  owner,  and  its  editorial  views 
accurately  reflected  his  own. 32  He  firmly  believed  that  government 
efforts  to  educate  the  Indians33  and  teach  them  to  farm  were  utterly 
useless,  and  doomed  to  failure. 3t+  The  red  man  could  not  be  'civilized,’ 
and  it  was  foolhardy  extravagance  to  attempt  to  change  his  ways.  When 
he  was  named  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs  in  1905,  Oliver 
may  have  found  it  politically  impossible  to  amend  the  law  so  that 
Indians  could  be  removed  from  their  reserves  without  their  consent,3^ 


31An  examination  of  the  "Land  Sales  Books"  for  the  Prairie 
Provinces,  held  by  the  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  shows 
that  a  great  proportion  of  the  surrendered  Indian  lands  were  purchased 
by  land  speculators  residing  in  Eastern  Canada,  Winnipeg,  or  the  United 
States,  who  quite  evidently  never  attempted  to  farm  their  lands,  and 
who  retained  possession  of  them  for  many  years.  D.I.N.A.,  Lands  Branch, 
"Land  Sales  Books." 

32William  S.  Waddell,  "The  Honourable  Frank  Oliver,"  M.A. 

Thesis,  University  of  Alberta  -  1950.  (Edmonton:  1950.) 

33Canada,  Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons,  2nd  Session,  1896, 
Columns  2394-2397;  1897  Session,  Vol.  II,  Column  4076;  1899  Session, 

Vol .  Ill,  Columns  7491-7493. 

31+0liver  was  quoted  as  telling  an  official  of  the  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs  that  it  was  useless  to  try  to  make  farmers  out  of  Indians. 
A.  W.  Ponton  to  the  Secretary,  Department  of  Indian  Affairs,  July  24, 
1902,  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records,  Vol.  3563,  File  82-15, 

o3In  1911,  Oliver  did  introduce  legislation  which  allowed  the 
Crown  to  dispose  of  Indian  reserves  without  the  consent  of  the  Indians 
concerned.  The  amendment  to  the  Indian  Act  was  only  applicable  to 
Indian  reserves  within  the  boundaries  of  a  city,  however.  Canada, 
Statutes  of  Canada,  1  George  5  (1911),  Cap  14,  Sec.  2. 


159 


but  he  could  implement  a  programme  of  unrelieved  pressure  upon  bands 
across  the  North  West,  to  coerce  them  into  the  surrender  of  as  much 
reserve  land  as  possible.  During  his  six  year  term  of  office, 
twenty-four  major  surrenders  of  reserve  land  were  taken,36  and  many 
more  were  attempted.37  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  Indian  lands 
were  permanently  alienated.  Frank  Oliver  never  doubted  the  justice  of 
such  a  policy.  For  him  and  for  his  supporters  in  the  rapidly  expanding 
city  of  Edmonton,  the  history  of  the  Passpasschase  Reserve  had  proved 
a  self-evident  truth. 


36These  were  surrenders  from  the  Alexander,  Michel,  Stony  Plain, 
Samson,  Louis  Bull,  Peigan,  Wabamun,  and  Blackfoot  Reserves  in  Alberta, 
the  Cote  (3  surrenders),  Pasquah,  Kahkeewistahaw,  Cowessess,  Fishing 
Lake,  Swan  Lake  (#7A) ,  Little  Bone,  Muscowpetung,  Key,  Keeseekoose, 
Mistawasis  and  Muskowequan  Reserves  in  Saskatchewan,  and  the  Swan  Lake 
(#7)  and  St.  Peter's  Reserves  in  Manitoba.  D.I.N.A, ,  Land  Registry 
Office,  "Reserve  General  Register"  for  each  of  the  reserves  named. 

370ne  of  Oliver's  more  original  ideas  was  to  appoint  the  Rev. 
John  McDougall,  a.  Methodist  missionary  who  had  the  confidence  of  many 
of  the  Indians,  as  a  special  agent  commissioned  to  take  land  surrenders 
from  a  number  of  Indian  bands.  See  P.A.C.,  Indian  Affairs  Records, 

Vol .  4020,  File  280,470-2. 


( 


160 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

The  greater  part  of  the  information  upon  which  this  thesis  was 
based  was  found  in  primary  sources,  principally  the  Records  of  the 
Department  of  Indian  Affairs  in  the  Public  Archives  of  Canada.  The 
files  from  the  period  which  has  been  examined  were  originally  in  three, 
distinct  groups:  Red  Series  (headquarters  files  commencing  between 
1873  and  1881) ,  Black  Series  (headquarters  files  commencing  after 
December  31,  1881),.  and  Commissioner's  Office  files.  The  first  two 
series  were  registry  systems;  that  is,  each  piece  of  incoming  corres¬ 
pondence  was  stamped  with  a  number,  and  recorded  consecutively  in 
large  registers  (Red  for  the  Red  Series,  Black  for  the  Black  Series) . 

If  the  subject  of  the  letter  was  new,  its  number  became  the  number  of 
the  new  file  which  was  opened  to  deal  with  the  subject.  If  there  was 
already  a  file  in  existence  to  which  the  letter  would  be  attached,  the 
register  would  record  the  appropriate  file  number.  Most  headquarters 
files  from  the  1870's  and  1880's  are  still  extant,  but  those  that 
have  been  lost  or  destroyed  can  be  reconstructed  from  the  brief 
descriptions  of  each  incoming  letter  given  in  the  registers  together 
with  the  letterpress  copies  of  all  outgoing  letters  which  have  also 
been  preserved  in  the  Deputy  Superintendent  General's  and  the 
Department  of  Indian  Affairs  Letterbooks.  The  same  cannot  be  said  of 
the  Commissioner's  Office  Files,  most  of  which  were  destroyed  when 
the  Office  was  closed  in  1909,  and  for  which  no  registers  or  letter- 
books  have  survived.  Since  practically  all  communications  from  the 


Indian  Agencies  in  the  North  West  Territories  between  1879  and  1897  were 
addressed  to  the  Indian  Commissioner ,  who  only  forwarded  to  Ottawa  those 
items  which  he  thought  to  be  of  importance  or  interest,  the  destruction 
of  these  files  was  especially  regrettable.  Fortunately,  the  files 
which  were  preserved  were  chiefly  concerned  with  land  matters,  Indian 
discontent  in  1884  and  1885,  and  the  granting  of  North  West  Half-Breed 
Scrip  to  Treaty  Indians.  For  all  three  series  the  original  file 
numbers  have  been  retained,  unless  correspondence  on  the  subject 
continued  on  past  1920,  when  a  new,  coded,  filing  system  was  intro¬ 
duced.  However,  files  from  the  Red  Series,  and  the  Commissioner's 
Office  were  combined  into  the  Black  Series,  before  they  were  transferred 
to  the  Public  Archives  of  Canada,  causing  some  confusion.  The 
"Black  Series"  has  thus  come  to  include  all  files  which  were  closed 
between  1873  and  1920  and  which  dealt  exclusively  with  Western  Canada. 
(The  Red  Series,  after  1881,  was  reserved  for  files  dealing  with 
Ontario  and  Quebec,  the  personnel  at  Headquarters,  or  general  policy 
files  for  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Files  concerning  Indian  admini¬ 
stration  in  the  Maritime  Provinces  have  been  transferred  from  the 
Black  Series  to  the  Red,  adding  geographical  consistency  to  the  division 
of  the  headquarter  files,  but  complicating  the  search  for  specific 
documents.)  Until  1976,  the  only  finding  aids  available  for  the 
Black  and  Red  Series  were  very  incomplete  subject  indexes,  and 
researchers  attempting  to  use  the  records  were  severely  hampered.  At 
present,  a  complete  list  is  available,  which,  although  still  imperfect, 
provides  the  researcher  with  a  much  clearer  guide  to  the  records. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Treaty  annuity  paysheets,  those 


162 


records  listed  in  the  footnotes  and  bibliography  as  still  in  the  poss¬ 
ession  of  the  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  have  not  been 
employed  as  a  source  of  specific  information  concerning  the  history  of 
the  Passpasschase  Reserve.  Rather,  they  were  cited  as  the  most  con¬ 
venient  source  for  evidence  to  substantiate  certain  generalizations 
concerning  the  Department's  administration  of  Indian  lands  in  the 
Prairie  Provinces .  It  is  expected  that  most  of  these  records  will 
eventually  be  transferred  to  the  Public  Archives  of  Canada.  Microfilm 
copies  of  the  paysheets  have  already  been  deposited  in  the  P.A.C.,  but 
the  permission  of  D.I.N.A.,  is  still  required  before  they  can  be  examined. 
Microfilm  copies  of  the  paysheets  from  1874  to  1900  inclusive  can  also 
be  found  in  the  Glenbow-Alberta  Institute  in  Calgary. 

The  Records  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  are  in  somewhat 
sadder  shape  than  those  of  Indian  Affairs.  They,  too,  were  originally 
organized  as  a  registry  system,  but  the  registers  and  letterbooks  have 
been  destroyed.  Following  the  break-up  of  the  Department  in  the  1930’s, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  files  were  transmitted  to  the  governments  of 
the  three  Prairie  Provinces.  Saskatchewan  has  preserved  most  of  the 
records  it  received,  and  they  can  be  found  in  the  "Homestead  Files"  at 
the  Saskatchewan  Archives  in  Saskatoon.  Alberta,  on  the  other  hand, 
appears  to  have  destroyed  almost  all  documents  except  those  concerning 
applications  for  homesteads  by  individuals.  A  large  number  of  Interior 
files  were  retained  in  Ottawa,  however,  including  many  of  those  concern¬ 
ing  Indian  Reserves,  and  probably  all  of  those  dealing  with  "Half-Breed 
Scrip".  But,  while  file  lists  and  indexes  for  these  records  exist,  they 
are  not  complete  or  well -organized.  Considering  the  large  volume  of 
material  involved,  this  is  a  serious  handicap  to  comprehensive  research. 


The  Records  of  the  Privy  Council  contain  copies  of  Indian 


reserve  surrender  documents,  and  of  descriptions  of  reserves  that  were 
confirmed  by  Order  in  Council.  The  Records  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  which  are  available  contain  the  legal  opinions  on  general 
policy  questions  given  by  the  government's  lawyers  to  the  various 
departments  before  1930.  The  records  of  the  North  West  Mounted  Police 
are  very  incomplete  until  1883,  when  the  Commissioner's  Office  was 
permanently  established  at  Regina.  Most  of  the  headquarters  records 
for  the  1870 's  and  1880 's  are  not  extant. 

For  an  understanding  of  the  political  considerations  behind  much 
of  the  Indian  policy  from  1878  to  1890,  an  examination  of  the  Macdonald 
Papers  is  essential.  Except  for  a  brief  interval,  in  1887,  Macdonald 
served  as  his  own  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs  for  a  decade 
after  his  return  to  power  in  1878.  His  correspondence  with  his  Deputy 
Superintendent  General  Lawrence  Vankoughnet  and  the  Indian  Commissioner 
Edgar  Dewdney,  is  especially  enlightening.  Further  evidence  of  the 
political  context  in  which  decisions  affecting  Indian  administration  in 
the  North  West  Territories  were  made,  can  be  gleaned  from  the  published 
Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent, . from  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Department  of  Interior  and  of  the  Department  of  Indian 
Affairs  published  annually  in  the  Sessional  Papers.  Until  1886,  the 
annual  reports  of  the  individual  Indian  agents  and  inspectors,  which 
were  attached  to  that  of  the  Superintendent  General ,  were  practically 
uncensored,  and  they  constitute  an  important  source  of  additional 
information  concerning  the  administration  of  Indian  Affairs.  In  1386, 
however,  Liberal-  members  of  Parliament  began  making  extensive  use  of 


164 


the  information  provided  by  the  Annual  Reports  to  buttress  their 
arguments  that  the  Conservative  government’s  actions  had  provoked  Indian 
participation  in  the  1885  rebellion,  and  the  annual  reports  quickly  came 
under  much  more  rigid  scrutiny  prior  to  publication,  greatly  limiting 
their  usefulness  as  a  source  of  authentic  information. 

In  order  to  understand  the  legal  framework  in  which  Indian 
administration  operated,  it  is  necessary  to  consult  the  various  Indian 
Acts  and  their  amendments  in  force  during  the  period  under  study. 

Canadian  Indians  and  the  Law,  edited  by  Derek  G.  Smith,  provides  copies 
of  much  of  the  most  important  legislation,  but  it  is  less  comprehensive 
than  the  three  volume  "Consolidation  of  Indian  Legislation, "  which  was 
recently  compiled  for  D.I.N.A.  by  Gail  Hinge. 

Local  white  reaction  to  the  government's  Indian  policies  can 
best  be  discerned  from  the  comments  in  North  West  Territories  newspapers, 
which  also  constitute  an  important  source  of  information  concerning  the 
problems  encountered  by  local  officials  in  dealing  with  the  Indian  popu¬ 
lation.  While  often  unsympathetic  to  the  concerns  of  the  natives,  the 
editors  of  the  early  North  West  newspapers  maintained  a  surprisingly 
high  literary  standard,  and  local  events  were  usually  recounted  in  a 
colourful  manner.  Frank  Oliver's  articles  and  editorials  in  the 

Edmonton  Bulletin  and  his  earlier  columns  in  the  Saskatchewan  Herald, 

.  — 

while  often  displaying  reprehensible  attitudes,  are  also  of  interest 
because  of  their  unrelenting  criticism  of  all  aspects  of  the 
Conservative  government's  Indian  policy  (or  any  other  policy,  for  that 
matter) . 

There  has  been  relatively  little  that  has  been  published  on 


the  subject  of  Indian  reserve  land  surrenders  in  Western  Canada. 


Stewart  Raby *s  article  "Indian  Land  Surrenders  in  Southern  Saskatchewan" 
(Canadian  Geographer ,  1973) ,  provides  a  useful  survey  of  land  surrenders 
in  that  district  between  1901  and  1928.  It  emphasizes  the  pressure 
from  local  white  settlers  and  railway  developers  as  the  force  behind  the 
government's  drive  for  surrenders,  and  the  vulnerability  of  Indian  bands 
to  charges  that  they  were  making  insufficient  use  of  the  land  that  they 
held,  and  to  the  inducements  of  cash  advances  that  would  enable  needy 
individuals  to  repay  personal  debts  and  purchase  machinery  necessary  for 
farming  operations.  Raby. makes  little  reference  to  the  pressure  for 
land  surrenders  which  came  from  the  highest  levels  of  the  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs,  particularly  during  the  period  of  1905  to  1911  when 
Frank  Oliver  was  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs ,  nor  to  the 
hypocrisy  inherent  in  many  of  the  proposals  for  surrenders  that  would 
ostensibly  promote  agricultural  development.  In  practice,  many  such 
surrenders  served  only  to  dispose  of  the  best  agricultural  land  on  the 
reserve,  and  to  dispossess  the  most  successful  farmers  among  the  band 
membership.  The  vulnerability  of  bands  was  also  greater  than  Raby 
implied.  Indians  could  not  leave  their  reserves  without  a  pass  from 
their  agent,  nor  sell  any  of  their  agricultural  produce  without  a 
permit  from  the  same  source.  Many,  especially  the  ill  and  the  aged, 
were  still  dependent  on  government  rations  of  food  and  clothing  for 
survival.  Persons  living  under  such  conditions  would  find  it  difficult 
to  resist  pressure  from  officials  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs 
to  surrender  significant  portions  of  their  land.  David  Lupul's  "The 
Bobtail  Land  Surrender"  (Alberta  History,  Winter  1978) ,  gives  more  of 


an  indication  of  the  prevailing  sentiment  within  the  Department  of 
Indian  Affairs  in  favour  of  Indian  land  surrenders  under  the  regime  of 
Frank  Oliver.  The  Department's  highly  questionable  interpretation  of 
the  legal  rights  of  the  various  groups  of  Indians  interested  in  that 
complicated  case,  was  perhaps  accepted  too  uncritically,  however,  and 
a  few  interesting  aspects  of  the  negotiations  leading  up  to  the  sur¬ 
renders  (such  as  the  Rev.  John  McDougall's  promise  that  the  Hobbema 
Indians  would  be  permitted  to  hold  a  sundance  should  they  agree  to  his 
proposition  for  a  land  sale) ,  were  not  discussed. 

More  has  been  written  on  other  aspects  of  Indian  administration 
touched  on  in  this  thesis.  Native  Rights  in  Canada  (1972),  edited  by 
Peter  A.  Gumming  and  Neil  H.  Mickenberg,  is  the  most  extensive  exami¬ 
nation  of  the  question  of  the  aboriginal  rights  of  Canada's  native 
peoples.  It  must  be  used  with  care,  however,  for  it  was  written  more 
as  a  brief  in  favour  of  aboriginal  rights  than  as  an  objective  assess¬ 
ment  of  the  degree  to  which  the  concept  has  been  accepted  by  different 
Canadian  governments  and  courts.  Although  it  is  now  fifty  years  old, 

W.  C.  MacLeod ' s ,  The  American  Indian  Frontier  (1928),  probably  gives 
a  more  balanced  account  of  the  development  of  the  concept  among  the 
various  colonizing  powers  in  the  Americas .  The  Department  of  Indian 
and  Northern  Affairs  has  recently  produced  a  pedestrian  study  of  the 
"Historical  Development  of  the  Indian  Act"  (1975) ,  which  provides  much 
useful  information  on  the  various  stages  through  which  Canada's  Indian 
legislation  progressed.  John  L.  Tobias'  "Protection,  Civilization, 
Assimilation:  An  Outline  History  of  Canada's  Indian  Policy"  (Western 


Canadian  Journal  of  Anthropology,  1976) ,  examines  those  aspects  of 


Canada's  Indian  legislation  which  promoted  the  assimilation  of  the 


Indian  population  into  the  dominant  European  culture . 

The  question  of  whether  the  Government  of  Canada  incurred  the 
legal  obligations  of  a  trustee  in  undertaking  its  self-appointed 
mission  to  "civilize"  the  Indians,  has  been  examined  in  L.  C.  Green's 
"Trusteeship  and  Canada's  Indians"  (Dalhousie  Law  Journal,  1976)  and 
by  Dennis  M.  Brans  "The  Trusteeship  Role  of  the  Government  of  Canada" 
(unpublished,  1971)  .  Both  concede  that  the  question  is  still  open, 
but  conclude  that  it  is  unlikely  that  a  case  for  breach  of  trust  could 
be  successfully  prosecuted  against  the  Crown.  Douglas  Sanders  in 
"The  Friendly  Care  and  Directing  Hand  of  the  Government"  (unpublished, 
1977) ,  reaches  a  different  conclusion,  but  appears  to  rely  more  upon 
political  pronouncements  and  decisions  by  the  United  States  Indian 
Claims  Commission,  than  upon  any  solid  Canadian  or  British  precedents. 

The  treaties  negotiated  between  the  Canadian  government  and 
the  Indians  of  the  North  West  have  received  more  attention.  Most 
authorities  appear  to  agree  with  L.  C.  Green's  conclusion  in  "Legal 
Significance  of  Treaties  Affecting  Canada's  Indians"  (Anglo-American 
Law  Review,  1972),  that  the  "Indian  treaties"  were  not  really  "treaties 
at  all,  in  the  sense  of  negotiated  agreements  between  sovereign  parties 
The  Canadian  government  considered  the  Indians  to  be  subjects  of  the 
Queen  and  answerable  to  Canadian  law  even  before  the  treaties  were 
signed,  and  the  Courts  have  upheld  that  view.  But  the  treaties  were 
of  enormous  practical  value  in  assuaging  the  consciences  of  the  Euro¬ 
pean  newcomers  to  the  North  West  and  in  winning  the  Indians'  accep¬ 
tance  of  the. new  order.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  negotiations 


which  preceded  the  treaties  were  of  real  significance,  and  the  con¬ 
tribution  of  the  Indian  chiefs  to  the  final  terms  agreed  upon  was  not 
insubstantial,  a  point  brought  out  by  John  L.  Taylor  in  his  "The 
Development  of  an  Indian  Policy  for  the  Canadian  North-West,  1869- 
79"  (Ph.D.  Thesis,  Queen's,  1975). 

The  period  between  the  signing  of  the  treaties  and  the  1885 
rebellion  has  been  discussed  in  a  number  of  works.  While  it  makes  only 
passing  reference  to  Indian  reserves,  Chester  .Martin's  Dominion  Lands 
Policy  (1938)  is  useful  in  giving  a  detailed  description  of  the 
Federal  Government's  general  policies  and  objectives  in  its  adminis¬ 
tration  of  North  West  lands.  A.  S.  Morton's  A  History  of  Prairie 
Settlement  (1938)  is  valuable  for  outlining  the  overwhelming  problems 
which  settlers  encountered  in  their  first  attempts  to  raise  grain 
crops  on  the  Canadian  Prairies  before  the  essential  dry  land  farming 
techniques  were  successfully  adopted.  What  he  tells  us  of  white 
farmers  must  have  applied  with  even  greater  force  to  inexperienced 
Indian  agriculturalists,  a  point  that  has  not  been  sufficiently 
emphasized  in  discussions  of  Indian  agricultural  efforts  before  1885. 
Frank  Gilbert  Roe's  The  North  American  Buffalo  (1951)  contains  much 
useful  information  concerning  the  mammal  whose  disappearance  signalled 
the  sudden  transformation  of  the  way  of  life  of  the  Plains  Indians, 
but  it  is  marred  by  convoluted  argumentation  and  too-frequent 
digressions  in  order  to  launch  vituperative  assaults  upon  all  with 
whom  he  finds  occasion  to  disagree.  R.  C.  Macleod's  The  North-West 
Mounted  Police  and  Lav;  Enforcement;  1873-1905  (1976)  gives  a  brief, 


but  balanced  and  well-researched  assessment  of  the  role  of  the  N.W.M.P. 


in  bringing  Indian  and  white  to  accept  the  dictates  of  the  rule  of  law. 

George  F.  G.  Stanley,  in  his  Birth  of  Western  Canada  (1936) , 
argued  that  the  Plains  Indian  was  unwilling  to  adopt  sedentary  agricul¬ 
tural  pursuits  after  the  buffalo  had  disappeared.  Noel  Evan  Dyck's  "The 
Administration  of  Federal  Indian  Aid  in  the  North  West  Territories : 
1879-1885"  (M.A.  Thesis,  University  of  Saskatchewan,  1970)  takes  issue 
with  this  view,  and  points  to  the  evidence  of  sustained  efforts  on  the 
part  of  many  bands  to  raise  sufficient  food  for  their  own  survival. 

Dyck  is  perhaps  somewhat  unjust  in  attributing  too  much  of  the  failure 
of  these  efforts  to  bumbling-  and  corruption  on  the  part  of  government 
officials,  and  not  enough  to  the  difficulties  arising  from  climatic 
conditions  and  unsuitable  farming  techniques.  He  also  appears  to  have 
been  unaware  of  the  conflict  between  the  partisans  of  Dewdney  on  the 
one  hand  and  Vankoughnet  on  the  other,  among  the  Indian  Affairs 
officials  in  the  North  West.  By  accepting  uncritically  the  accu¬ 
sations  of  both  sides  against  the  other,  he  leaves  a  rather  unfair 
impression  of  the  incompetence  and  dishonesty  of  the  Department's 
agents.  The  relevant  sections  of  James  Douglas  Leighton's  "The 
Development  of  Federal  Indian  Policy  in  Canada  1840-1890"  (Ph.D. 

Thesis,  University  of  Western  Ontario,  1975)  are  based  upon  more  super¬ 
ficial  research  than  Dyck's  thesis,  but  offer  a  more  understanding 
view  of  the  problems  experienced  by  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs 
in  finding  and  keeping  competent  men  to  fill  its  local  positions.  He 
concludes  that  the  Department  did  the  best  it  could  under  very  diffi¬ 
cult  circumstances.  Jean  B.  D.  Larmours '  study  of  Dewdney,  "Edgar 
Dewdney,  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  and  Lieutenant  Governor  of 


the  North-West  Territories,  1879-1888"  (M.A.  Thesis,  University  of 
Saskatchewan,  1969),  is  largely  uncritical,  and  has  not  employed  any 
of  the  material  from  the  files  of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs. 
Still,  it  discusses  most  of  the  major  issues  which  appear  to  have 
engaged  Dewdney's  attention  during  his  term  in  the  N.W.T. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  works  published  on  the  North  West 
Rebellion,  most  of  them  dealing  to  some  extent  with  the  role  of  the 
Indians  in  that  event.  Most  authorities  still  concur  in  Stanley's 
judgement  that  the  government's  excessive  concern  with  economy  of 
expenditure  provoked  many-  of  the  Plains  Cree  and  Assiniboine  to  take 
up  arms  against  the  government,  but  there  is  less  agreement  with  the 
interpretation  advanced  in  The  Birth  of  Western  Canada  that  the  Metis 
and  Indian  uprising  was  the  result  of  a  common  reaction  to  the  threat 
posed  to  a  dying  order  by  the  invasion  of  a  more  advanced  society. 

While  emphasizing  with  Stanley  the  desperate  plight  of  the  Plains 
Indians  and  the  substantial  nature  of  their  grievances  against  the 
Canadian  government,  writers  such  as  Hugh  A.  Dempsey  in  Crowfoot:  Chief 
of  the  Blackfeet  (1973) ,  Norma  Slum an  in  Poundmaker  (1967) ,  and 
W.  B.  Fraser  in  "Big  Bear,  Indian  Patriot"  (Alberta  Historical  Review, 
Spring,  1966)  ,  have  emphasized  the  superior  acumen  of  the  Indian 
leaders  to  Louis  Riel,  and  the  degree  to  which  their  movements  of 
protest  were  distinct  from  those  of  the  Metis.  Slum an  and  Fraser  argue 
that  the  participation  of  the  Indians  in  the  Rebellion  was  not  intended 
by  the  chiefs,  and  was  precipitated  by  the  undisciplined  reactions  of 
their  young  men  to  the  heady  news  from  Duck  Lake. 


The  work  of  the  North  West  Half-Breed  Claims  Commission  between 


1885  and  1891  has  attracted  far  less  attention  than  it  deserves,  parti¬ 
cularly  in  light  of  the  irrepressible  interest  in  the  North  West 
Rebellion.  While  the  demand  for  scrip  would  seem  to  have  been  para¬ 
mount  among  the  grievances  alleged  by  the  Metis  in  the  period  before 
1885,  most  writers  have  been  content  to  assert  that  armed  rebellion 
did,  in  fact,  win  recognition  for  the  claims  of  the  Metis  for  compen¬ 
sation  in  recognition  of  their  aboriginal  rights,  without  troubling 
themselves  to  examine  how  those  claims  were  dealt  with  in  practice. 

Marcel  Giraud,  in  his  mammoth  Le  Metis  Canadien  (1945) ,  devotes  some 
attention  to  the  question,  and  while  he  reaches  the  inescapable  con¬ 
clusion  that  the  granting  of  transferable  scrip  brought  little  or  no 
lasting  benefit  to  the  Metis,  certain  aspects  of  his  account  are  mis¬ 
leading.  David  J.  Hall’s  "The  Half-Breed  Claims  Commission"  (Alberta 
History,  Spring,  1977)  deals  primarily  with  the  1899  and  1900  Scrip 
Commissions.  The  most  extensive  discussion  of  the  work  of  the  earlier 
North  West  Commissions  is  to  be  found  in  John  L.  Taylor's  "Historical 
Introduction  to  Metis  Claims  in  Canada"  (unpublished,  1975) . 

The  only  substantial  work  on  the  career  of  Frank  Oliver  is  the 
thesis  by  William  S.  Waddell,  "The  Honourable  Frank  Oliver"  (M.A.  Thesis, 
University  of  Alberta,  1950) .  No  personal  papers  of  the  Edmonton 
publisher  and  politician  have  ever  come  to  light,  and  so  any  detailed 
study  of  his  career  must  rely  upon  his  public  statements,  his  writings 
in  the  Bulletin,  and  his  private  correspondence  in  other  collections  of 
private  papers  such  as  the  Sifton  and  Laurier  Papers  in  the  Public 
Archives  of  Canada.  Waddell  did  not  employ  any  sources  which  were  not 
available  in  Edmonton,  and  did  not  carry  his  study  beyond  1905.  His 


thesis  was  thus  confined  to  an  examination  of  Oliver's  public  career  in 
the  period  before  he  rose  to  the  position  of  Minister  of  the  Interior 
and  Superintendent  General  of  Indian  Affairs.  It  is  largely  uncriti¬ 
cal,  and  pays  scant  attention  to  Oliver's  views  on  Indian  Affairs 
except  to  draw  attention  to  those  occasions  upon  which  Oliver  casti¬ 
gated  Dewdney  and  the  Federal  authorities  for  their  dangerous  policy 
of  exercising  stringent  economy  in  the  face  of  widespread  hunger  and 
rising  discontent  among  the  Plains  tribes. 

In  addition  to  the  published  books  and  articles  and  the  un¬ 
published  theses  and  papers  available  to  the  public  mentioned  above, 
a  considerable  number  of  unpublished  papers  have  been  prepared  for  the 
different  Prairie  Indian  organizations  which  are  regarded  as  confi¬ 
dential.  A  few  of  these  papers  have  been  cited  in  the  footnotes  and 
the  bibliography.  It  is  anticipated  that  the  great  majority  of  these 
papers  will  be  made  available  to  academic  researchers  once  the  specific 
issues  in  dispute  between  the  Federal  Government  and  the  Indian 
organizations  which  the  papers  address,  are  disposed  of. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


PRIMARY  SOURCES 
Government  Records 


Canada ,  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs : 

Genealogical  and  Archival  Research  Unit,  "Annuity  Paysheets 
for  Treaties  4,  6,  and  7". 

Indian  and  Eskimo  Program  Headquarters  Files. 

Lands  Branch,  "Land  Sales  Books"  and  "Reserve  Land  Sales 
Registers " . 

Land  Registry  Office,  "Reserve  General  Registers". 

The  Federal  Court  of  Canada: 

Cardinal  v  The  Queen,  Statement  of  Claim,  June  3Q ,  1975. 

Glenbow-Alberta  Institute: 

Hobbema  Indian  Agency  Papers. 


Public  Archives 
Records 
Records 
Records 
Records 
Records 
Records 


of  Canada: 

of  the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs . 
of  the  Department  of  the  Interior, 
of  the  Department  of  Justice, 
of  the  North  West  Mounted  Police, 
of  the  Privy  Council. 

of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Provinces . 


Saskatchewan  Archives  Board: 
Homestead  Files. 


Private  Papers 

Alberta  Provincial  Archives : 

Oblate  Papers. 

Public  Archives  of  Canada: 

Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  Papers. 
Alexander  Morris  Papers. 

Public  Archives  of  Manitoba: 

Adams  G.  Archibald  Papers. 
Alexander  Morris  Papers . 


Government  Publications 


Parliament : 

Debates  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Sessional  Papers . 

Statutes . 


Secretary  of  State : 

The  Civil  Service  List  of  Canada. 


Newspapers 

Edmonton  Bulletin.  Edmonton,  N.W.T. 
Saskatchewan  Herald .  Battleford,  N.W.T. 

The  Winnipeg  Telegram.  Winnipeg,  Manitoba. 


Books 


Buttler,  William  Francis.  The  Great  Lone  Land.  Edmonton:  Hurtig 
Publishers,  1968. 

Cameron,  W.  B.  On  the  War  Trail  of  Big  Bear.  Toronto:  Ryerson,  1927. 

Grant,  Rev.  George  M.  Ocean  to  Ocean:  Sanford  Fleming's  Expendition 
Through  Canada  in  1872.  Toronto:  Coles  Publishing  Company, 
1970. 

Morris ,  Alexander .  The  Treaties  of  Canada  with  the  Indians  of  Manitoba 
and  the  North-West  Territories.  Toronto:  Coles  Publishing 
Company,  1971. 

Vattel,  Emmerich  de.  The  Law  of  Nations;  or  Principles  of  the  Lav;  of 
Nature  Applied  to  the  Conduct  and  Affairs  of  Nations  and 
Sovereigns ,  (Joseph  Chitty ,  ed.).  Philadelphia:  T„  &  J.  W. 
Johnson  Law  Booksellers,  1852. 

Victoria,  Franc is c us  de .  De  Indis  et  de  Jure  Belli  Reiectiones,  Being 
Parts  of  Relectiones  Theologicae  XII,  (Ernest  Nys ,  ed.) ,  in 
The  Classics  of  International  Law  Series ,  Washington : 

Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington;  1917. 

Others 

Hinge,  Gail.  "Consolidation  of  Indian  Legislation".  Unpublished 

compilation  prepared  for  the  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern 
Affairs,  1978.  Copies  of  this  work  are  held  by  the  Treaties 
and  Historical  Research  Office  of  the  Department  of  Indian 
Affairs  in  Hull,  Quebec. 


Lefler,  Hugh  T.  (ed.).  A  History  of  the  United  States  From  the  Age 
of  Exploration  to  1865.  Meridian  Documents  of  American 
History,  Cleveland:  The  World  Publishing  Company,  1960. 

Smith,  Derek  G.  (ed.)  .  Canadian  Indians  and  the  Law:  Selected 
Documents:  1663-1972.  Toronto:  McClelland  and  Stewart 
Ltd.,  1972. 

Young,  Harrison  S.  "Impressions  of  Fort  Edmonton,"  Alberta  Historical 
Review,  Vol.  13,  No.  1  (Winter,  1966),  22-25. 


SECONDARY  SOURCES 


Books 


Adams,  James  Truslow.  The  Founding  of  New  England.  Boston:  Little, 
Brown  &  Co . ,  1972. 

Boorstin,  Daniel  J.  The  Americans:  The  National  Experience.  New 
York:  Vintage  Books,  1965. 

.  Cumming,  Peter  A.  and  Neil  H.  Mickenberg  (eds.).  Native  Rights  in 

Canada .  2nd  ed.  Toronto:  The  Indian-Eskimo  Association  of 
Canada,  1972. 

Delanglez,  Jean.  Frontenac  and  the  Jesuits.  Chicago:  Institute  of 
Jesuit  History,  1939. 

Dempsey,  Hugh  A.  Crowfoot:  Chief  of  the  Blackfeet.  Edmonton:  Hurtig 
Publishers,  1973. 

Eccles,  W.  J.  Frontenac:  The  Courtier  Governor.  Toronto:  McClelland 
and  Stewart  Ltd. ,  1959.. 

Giraud,  Marcel.  Le  Metis  Canadien.  Son  role  dans  l'histoire  des 

provinces  de  1* Quest.  Paris:  Institut  d ' Ethnologic,  1945. 

Jacobs ,  Wilbur  R.  Dispossessing  the  American  Indian:  Indians  and 

Whites  on  the  Colonial  Frontier.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  1972. 

Macleod,  R.  C.  The  North-West  Mounted  Police  and  Law  Enforcement: 
1873-1905.  Toronto:  University  of  Toronto  Press,  1976. 

MacLeod,  W.  C.  The  American  Indian  Frontier.  London:  Dawsons  of 
Pall  Mall,  1963. 

Martin,  Chester.  Dominion  Lands  Policy.  Toronto:  McClelland  and 
Stewart  Ltd.,  1973. 

Morton,  Arthur  S.  A  History  of  the  Canadian  West  to  1870-71.  2nd  ed. 
Toronto:  University  of  Toronto  Press,  1973. 

Merton,  Arthur  S.  A  History  of  Prairie  Settlement,  Toronto: 

Macmillan,  1938, 

Patterson,  E.  Palmer  II.  The  Canadian  Indian:  A  History  Since  1500. 
Don  Mills,  Ontario:  Collier  MacMillan  Canada  Ltd.,  1972. 

Rich,  E.  E.  Hudson's  Bay  Company:  1670-1870.  Toronto:  McClelland 
and  Stewart  Ltd.,  I960. 


Roe,  Frank  Gilbert.  The  North  American  Buffalo:  A  Critical  Study  of 

the  Species  in  its  Wild  State.  Toronto:  University  of  Toronto 
Press,  1951. 

Simpson,  A.  W.  B.  An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Land  Law. 
Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press,  1961. 

Sluman,  Norma.  Poundmaker .  Toronto:  Ryerson ,  1967. 

Stanley,  George  F.  G.  The  Birth  of  Western  Canada:  A  History  of  the 

Riel  Rebellions.  Toronto:  University  of  Toronto  Press,  1961. 

Zaslow,  Morris.  The  Opening  of  the  Canadian  North,  1870-1914. 

Toronto:  McClelland  and  Stewart  Ltd.,  1971. 


Articles 


Farrand,  Max.  ’’The  Indian  Boundary  Line,"  American  Historical  Review, 
X  (1904-1905),  782-791. 

Fraser,  W.  B.  "Big  Bear,  Indian  Patriot,"  Historical  Essays  on  the 
Prairie  Provinces .  Edited  by  Donald  Swainson.  Toronto/Mon- 
treal:  McClelland  and  Stewart  Ltd.,  1970. 

Green,  L.  C.  "Legal  Significance  of  Treaties  Affecting  Canada's 

Indians,"  Anglo-American  Law  Review,  I,  1  (1972),  119-135. 

Green,  L.  C.  "Trusteeship  and  Canada's  Indians,"  Dalhousie  Law 
Journal,  III,  1  (1976),  104-135. 

Hall,  David  J.  "The  Half-Breed  Claims  Commission , "  Alberta  History, 
XXV,  2  (Spring,  1977). 

Lupul,  David.  "The  Bobtail  Land  Surrender,"  Alberta  History,  XXVI,  1 
(Winter,  1978) . 

Raby ,  Stewart.  "Indian  Land  Surrenders  in  Southern  Saskatchewan," 
Canadian  Geographer ,  XVII,  1  (1973),  36-52. 

Stanley,  George  F.  G.  "The  First  Indian  'Reserves'  in  Canada," 

Revue  d'Histoire  de  1'Am.e.rique  Frangaise,  IV,  2  (September, 
1950),  178-210. 

Tobias,  John  L.  "Indian  Reserves  in  Western  Canada:  Indian  Homelands 
or  Devices  for  Assimilation?"  Approaches  to  Native  History 
in  Canada: Papers  Presented  to  a  Conference  Held  at  the 

National  Museum  of  Man,  October,  1975.  Edited  by  D.  A.  Muise. 
History  Division  Paper  #25,  National  Museum  of  Man,  Mercury- 
Series.  Ottawa:  National  Museums  of  Canada,  1977,  pp.  89-103. 


Tobias,  John  L.  "Protection,  Civilization,  Assimilation:  An  Outline 

History  of  Canada's  Indian  Policy,"  The  Western  Canadian  Journal 
of  Anthropology ,  VI,  2  (1976) . 


Theses  and  Other  Unpublished  Works 


Bartlett,  R.  "The  Establishment  of  Reserves  in  Saskatchewan.” 

Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Federation  of  Saskatchewan 
Indians,  1975.  A  copy  of  this  paper  is  held  by  the  Treaty 
Rights  Research  Branch  of  The  Federation  of  Saskatchewan 
Indians,  1715  South  Railway  Avenue,  Regina,  Saskatchewan. 

Brans,  Dennis  M.  "The  Trusteeship  Role  of  the  Government  of  Canada." 

Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Indian  Claims  Commission, 
Summer  Student  Project,  August,  1971.  A  copy  of  this  paper 
is  held  by  the  Libraary  of  the  Indian  Rights  Commission,  207 
Queen  Street,  Ottawa,  Ontario. 

Canada,  Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  Policy  Planning  and 
Research  Branch.  "The  Historical  Development  of  the  Indian 
Act."  January,  1975.  A  copy  of  this  paper  can  be  obtained 
from  the  Treaties  and  Historical  Research  Office  of  the 
Department  of  Indian  and  Northern  Affairs,  Hull,  Quebec. 

Dyck,  Noel  Evan.  "The  Administration  of  Federal  Indian  Aid  in  the 

North  West  Territories:  1879-1885."  M. A.  Thesis ,  University 
of  Saskatchewan,  1970. 

Fraser,  William  A.  "Plains  Cree,  Assiniboine  and  Saulteaux  (Plains) 
Bands  1874-84."  Unpublished  paper  in  the  possession  of  the 
Glenbow-Alberta  Institute,  Calgary,  1963. 

Larmour ,  Jean  Beatrice  Drummond.  "Edgar  Dewdney,  Commissioner  of 
Indian  Affairs  and  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  North-West 
Territories,  1879-1888."  M. A.  Thesis,  University  of 
Saskatchewan ,  1969 . 

Leighton,  James  Douglas.  "The  Development  of  Federal  Indian  Policy 
in  Canada  1840-1890."  Ph.D.  Thesis,  University  of  Western 
Ontario,  1975. 

Sanders ,  Douglas .  "The  Friendly  Care  and  Directing  Hand  of  the 
Government;  A  Study  of  Government  Trusteeship  of  Indians 
in  Canada."  Unpublished  paper,  February  22,  1977.  A  copy 
of  this  paper  is  held  by  the  Treaty  Rights  Research  Branch 
of  The  Federation  of  Saskatchewan  Indians,  1715  South 
Railway  Avenue,  Regina,  Saskatchewan. 

Taylor,  John  Leonard.  "The  Development  of  an  Indian  Policy  for  the 
Canadian  North-West,  1869-79."  Ph.D.  Thesis,  Queen's 
Un iver s ity ,  1975. 


Taylor,  John  Leonard.  "Historical  Introduction  to  Metis  Claims  in 
Canada."  Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Indian  Claims 
Commission,  June,  1975.  A  copy  of  this  paper  is  held  by  the 
Library  of  the  Indian  Rights  Commission,  207  Queen  Street, 
Ottawa ,  Ontario . 

Tobias,  John  L.  "Interim  Report  on  the  Little  Pine /Lucky  Man  Band." 

Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Federation  of  Saskatchewan 
Indians,  Treaty  Rights  Research  Division,  1974.  A  copy  of  this 
paper  is  held  by  the  Treaty  Rights  Research  Branch  of  The 
Federation  of  Saskatchewan  Indians,  1715  South  Railway  Avenue, 
Regina,  Saskatchewan. 

Tyler,  Kenneth  J.  "A  History  of  the  Cowesses  Band:  1874-1911." 

Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  the  Federation  of  Saskatchewan 
Indians,  Treaty  Rights  Research  Division,  1975.  A  copy  of  this 
paper  is  held  by  the  Treaty  Rights  Research  Branch  of  The 
Federation  of  Saskatchewan  Indians,  1715  South  Railway  Avenue, 
Regina,  Saskatchewan. 

Tyler,  Kenneth  J.  "The  Treaty-Making  Process  in  Western  Canada  1869- 
1877.  A  Preliminary  Report:  The  First  Western  Treaties 
1869-1872."  Unpublished  paper  prepared  for  Treaty  and 
Aboriginal  Rights  Research  of  the  Indian  Association  of 
Alberta,  June,  1974.  A  copy  of  this  paper  is  held  by  the 
Treaty  and  Aboriginal  Rights  Research  Branch  of  the  Indian 
Association  of  Alberta,  11710  King sway  Avenue,  Edmonton, 

Alberta . 

Waddell,  William  S.  "The  Honourable  Frank  Oliver." 

University  of  Alberta,  1950. 


M . A.  Thesis , 


INTEKV IEWS 


Lapotac ,  Jim.  Interview  with  Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  November  22,  1972 

(in  Cree,  interpreter  George  Morin).  Tape  in  the  possession 
of  The  Enoch  Band,  Winterburn,  Alberta. 


Lapotac,  Jim. 

1973. 

Several  informal  interviews  with  Kenneth  J.  Tyler, 

Morin,  George. 

1973  . 

Several  informal  interviews  with  Kenneth  J.  Tyler, 

Morin,  Lawrence.  Several  informal  interviews  with  Kenneth  J.  Tyler, 
1973. 

Shortlegs ,  Albert.  Interview  with  Kenneth  J.  Tyler,  November,  1972 
(in  Cree,  interpreter  Henry  White) .  Tape  in  the  possession 
of  The  Enoch  Band,  Winterburn,  Alberta. 

Ward,  Johnny.  Several  informal  interviews  with.  Kenneth  J.  Tyler, 
1973.